Curriculum Statement - Maths
Intent
At Christ Church First School, we believe that maths is essential to everyday life and provides a foundation for understanding the world. We want to ignite a sense of curiosity of maths in our children and ensure that they enjoy the subject. Our aim in maths is to ensure that the children become fluent in the fundamentals, can reason mathematically and can solve problems by applying their learning to varied situations with confidence.
We want the children to see that maths is an interconnected subject, to make connections across the different areas to develop their fluency. This is why we have adopted the mastery approach to teaching and learning maths. The idea is introduced in the Foundation Stage and developed through the White Rose scheme of work in Years 1-4. At the same time, we unlock a passion for the subject, motivating the children to learn; encourage the children to believe that they can and will achieve in maths; and produce lifelong learners of the subject.
Implementation
Our pupils are encouraged to physically represent mathematical concepts. Objects and pictures are used to demonstrate and visualise abstract ideas, alongside numbers and symbols.
Concrete – children have the opportunity to use concrete objects and manipulatives to help them understand and explain what they are doing.
Pictorial – children then build on this concrete approach by using pictorial representations, which can then be used to reason and solve problems.
Abstract – With the foundations firmly laid, children can move to an abstract approach using numbers and key concepts with confidence.
Below outlines the progression through the 6 distinct domains in maths at Christ Church First School.
Number and place value:
During the Early Years, children become familiar with the idea of numbers through songs, counting small numbers of objects, beginning to use marks to represent numbers and starting to recognise numbers in the environment. By the end of this phase, children are able to count to 20, use number bonds to 10 and recognise odd and even numbers. This number knowledge is then developed in Keys Stage 1 when children become familiar with numbers up to 100, understanding the place value of the digits in these numbers and being able to count forwards and backwards in jumps of 2, 10, 3 and 5. Throughout Lower Key Stage 2, children’s number knowledge is extended to 10,000. Again, they use place value to recognise the worth of each digit and use patterns to help them count forward and backwards in jumps of varying size. Rounding numbers is also introduced with children learning how to round to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000. Roman numerals to 100 are also introduced.
Number-Fractions:
In the Early Years, children are introduced to the language of sharing and describing amounts and are able to solve problems that involve halving and doubling. In Key Stage 1, children’s knowledge of fractions is extended beyond halves to quarters and thirds. They are able to find parts of quantities as well as sets of objects and can name different fractions. Children also begin to compare and order unit fractions and fractions with the same denominator. During their time in Lower Key Stage 2, children build on their knowledge of fractions by finding equivalents and simplifying fractions. They move on to comparing and ordering non-unit fractions as well as those with different denominators. Children are able to add fractions with the same denominator and the idea of mixed numbers and improper fractions are introduced. Decimals are also introduced at the end of this Key Stage, with children able to write and order decimals up to hundredths and round numbers with one decimal place to the nearest whole number. They use their understanding of decimals to divide whole numbers by 10 and 100.
Statistics:
Whilst in the Early Years, children at Christ Church start to make comparisons of things in their environment and begin to collect simple data such as eye or hair colour. This data collection is then developed in Key Stage 1, when children start to present the information they have collected using picture graphs with a 1:1 scale or where the picture represents 2, 5 or 10. In Lower Key Stage 2, children are also introduced to bar charts as a way of presenting data and they are able to construct their own as well as interpret existing ones. Line graphs are also introduced.
Geometry-Property of Shapes:
During the Early Years, children are encouraged to show an interest in shapes in the environment and to talk about the shapes of everyday objects. They are able to describe 2D and 3D shapes using the correct language and begin making and recognising repetitive patterns. When in Key Stage 1, children build on their base knowledge of 2D and 3D shapes to sort them according to the properties and to talk about 3D shapes in terms of faces, edges and vertices. In Lower Key Stage 2, children are introduced to angles and learn that there are different types of angles within the 2D shapes they have learnt about previously. They learn about different types of lines and begin to describe 2D shapes in terms of their angles and lines. Children learn about broad shape names (triangles and quadrilaterals) and use their properties to recognise them. Symmetry is also introduced as a way of describing the properties of shapes.
Geometry-Position and Direction:
Children in the Early Years use positional language, prepositions and ordinal numbers. In Key Stage 1, the children are then introduced to the idea of objects and shapes moving left or right, clockwise or anti-clockwise, up or down etc. Turns are also introduced in terms of a quarter, half or three-quarter to describe how a 2D shape has moved. This language is then applied to positions of shapes on a grid in Lower Key Stage 2. Children also plot coordinate points (in the first quadrant) and translate shapes using language of up/down and left/right.
Measurement – Time:
In the Early Years, children begin using the language of time (before, later, soon) and begin anticipating time-specific events such as lunch time and home time. This understanding of time is developed in Key Stage 1 when children learn to tell the time to 5 minutes, including o’clock, half past, quarter to and quarter past. They are able to draw hands on clocks, sequence events and find start and finishing times. In Lower Key Stage 2, children build on their ability to tell the time by writing them to the nearest minute, using am and pm and using both analogue and digital clocks. They learn how to tell the time using a 24-hour clock and can convert between minutes and seconds, and hours and minutes.
Temperature:
Temperature is introduced in Key Stage 1, where children learn how to read and estimate temperature. This knowledge is then used and embedded throughout the rest of the school when teaching other areas such as statistics and negative numbers.
Money:
Children in the Early Years are introduced to some of the language associated with money. When in Key Stage 1, children learn how to recognise notes and coins, find total amounts and give money in coins, notes and a mixture of both as well as how to show equivalent amounts of money in different ways. After learning about money notations previously, children in Lower Key Stage 2 are able to add and subtract amounts of money and calculate change. The also begin to use other skills such as estimating to work out how much something will cost as well as rounding to work out an approximate total.
Length, Mass and Capacity:
During the Early Years, children begin to use language of size and start comparing and ordering objects in terms of their height, weight or length. They are introduced to capacity by talking about objects being full, half-full or empty. In Key Stage 1, children measure the length or weight of objects using non-standard measures (e.g. body parts, other objects) before being introduced to centimetres and metres; grams and kilograms; and litres and millilitres. Throughout this, children compare the length/weight/height/volume of objects. When in Lower Key Stage 2, children use the units they learned about previously to measure objects in a mixture of units (e.g. the length of a line in centimetres and millimetres). They begin reading scales to measure objects. It is in this phase that children are also introduced to perimeter and area of rectangles and squares.
In the Early Years, maths is strongly linked to the adventure being taught giving real purpose to the subject. Due to the nature of White Rose Maths, this isn’t always possible in other year groups, although teachers are encouraged to use the context of their adventure where appropriate. In all classrooms, a selection of practical resources are available for children to select from to enable them to move through the concrete, pictorial and abstract model of learning in maths.
At all times, children are encouraged to make connections across the different areas of maths and to apply their knowledge to different contexts.
Impact
At Christ Church First School we expect that, by the end of Y4, our children: