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Bath and Wells MAT

Maths

Curriculum Intent 

At St James Church School we aim to develop children as confident mathematicians who have the ability to apply their learning in context and develop a love of the subject. 

Curriculum 

As a school we are on a maths journey and use a variety of schemes and resources to support the teaching of the Maths National Curriculum. We currently use the NCETM Curriculum Prioritisation scheme in Years 1, 2 and 3 to secure a Maths Mastery approach to embed the fundamental skills in our Maths curriculum . We have chosen to follow the White Rose Maths Hub Schemes of Learning in years 4 , 5 and 6 to aid progression and consolidate understanding, applying them in a variety of contexts. We use the long term overviews to guide our planning process and always adapt our planning to suit the needs of the learners in the class to develop fluency, problem solving and reasoning skills.  

To ensure the children's understanding of key mathematical concepts is fully developed and supported we follow a concrete, pictorial, abstract approach to our calculation policy.  We also recognise the importance of children developing strong mental maths skills and they are supported in this through our whole school times table scheme, arithmetic tests and exciting activities.  

Phonics of Maths

We use a separate 15 minutes session of Maths throughout the week to aid mental calculation and support progress. In Reception and KS1 we follow the NCETM Mastering Number Approach to consolidate our understanding of number and embed the building blocks of Maths . This is built on throughout KS2 in our Phonics of Maths sessions to consolidate our understanding of mathematical concepts.

Maths Frame - Lots of free games to help with your maths.

TT Rockstars - Get working on those times tables, and see if you can top the school's leader board!

Times tables (Y2 onwards)

These are really important for supporting many areas of maths.  Your child will start learning these formally in Year 2 with the 2, 5 and 10 times table.  By the end of Year 4 they should know all of their tables to 12 x 12. We use a variety of methods to track the progress of the children's rapid recall of multiplication and division facts.

Ways to help your child learn their tables.

  • Chant them:  Do this in different ways, start at different numbers or work backwards.
  • TT Rockstars - An online resource to help consolidate multiplication facts. This is set as part of your child's homework across KS2, but your child can log on at any time and play. Please ask your class teacher if you need log in details or would like any support.
  • Speed tables:  Your child can race against a friend, an adult or play alone against a clock.  As they write down their tables, encourage them to aim for ‘personal bests’. They can write them down either as 8 x 6 = 48 or by filling in a tables grid or use the one your teacher sends home.
  • Bingo:  Make simple bingo cards in a 3 by 3 grid with multiples of numbers, for example, numbers from the 3 times table on them. Then you, as the caller, call out questions such as “four times three”, and whoever has 12 dabs it. The person who gets a full house is the caller on the next round.