Our Intent for Maths 

The maths curriculum at Carlton is aligned with the National Curriculum, and underpinned by current and robust research to ensure that the approaches used to plan, teach and assess maths will enable all children to have a secure and deep understanding of all aspects of the curriculum. This supports our motto of: ‘Together we can achieve anything’, which includes both pupils and staff in achieving excellence. All staff are passionate about the teaching of maths, and this is evident throughout our learning environments and their enthusiasm for teaching. We are proud of our maths provision, and encourage our children to take pride in their mathematical successes. The approaches used to teach maths at Carlton ensures that all pupils will make connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. Our curriculum ensures that all children have the opportunity to apply their skills across different contexts, making links to real life where appropriate so that pupils can develop a respect for maths, and an understanding of why the mathematical knowledge and skills are important in the wider world. We work alongside the community to promote this, by sharing information and resources through parental workshops, and by engaging with local and national businesses. Vocabulary is taught explicitly throughout each lesson through the use of Word Wheels, to ensure that all children are able to access mathematical learning, and that misconceptions around vocabulary are not a barrier to learning.

The national curriculum for mathematics intends to ensure that all pupils:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
• Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
• Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions. Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas.

Although we have mixed year group classes in each phase across school, the curriculum design requires maths to be taught in pure year groups to ensure a clear progression from Nursery to Year 6, using small steps to meet end of year objectives. The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the maths curriculum at the same pace and be working within year group objectives, however for pupils with SEND with Learning and Cognition needs, this may not always be appropriate and will form part of their School Focused Plan. For pupils that have found a concept difficult, same day interventions will be utilised to ensure there is a keep up, not catch up approach. There is specific time planned in throughout the week to any sure that any pupils can access the support that they need so that they can continue to access the curriculum at the same pace as their peers. We have built a respectful and trusting environment, where all pupils know that they are able to ask for support, and that the staff will be skilled to help them to understand more clearly. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through being offered rich mastery and sophisticated problems from their year group curriculum, not acceleration through new content. Our curriculum is designed to teach children strategies for solving problems, which enables them to clearly articulate their understanding and reason their thoughts. The maths leader works closely with the Link Governor for maths, to share and discuss the provision of maths from Nursery to Year 6. The Link Governor also visits school to ensure that they have a clear understanding of what maths looks like at Carlton, and to offer to support and challenge where appropriate.

Word Wheels

We use 'Word Wheels' across from Nursey to Year 6 to explicity teach the vocabulary that children will need to understand to help them within their maths lessons. We use a combination of images, diagrams, definitions and concrete resources to make sure children understand, and can refer back to them throughout their learning.