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Maths
Our Curriculum
We love teaching maths and are very proud of the children’s achievements in maths. We are committed to the success of every single child in the school. Mathematics, like reading and writing, is a key life skill which all children can and should be able to master.
Every child a mathematician
At South Milford, our belief is that every single child can attain highly in maths. There is no special maths ‘gene’ or talent that makes some children attain highly and others struggle. With the right teaching and support, all children can master and enjoy primary school mathematics!
Mastery – deep understanding
The National Curriculum 2014 promotes a ‘mastery’ approach to teaching and learning mathematics which we in turn follow. Mastery means seeking to develop a deep understanding of mathematical concepts such that the children can use and apply a concept to solve all kinds of problems related to it. Mastery means having a deep understanding of maths ideas, not just following rote formulae.
Maths you can touch and see (Concrete – Pictorial – Abstract learning)
To develop depth of understanding, we try to use what is called the Concrete – Pictorial – Abstract (CPA) approach. This is highly successful in areas such as Singapore and Shanghai. It means showing children with physical (concrete) models what a maths idea such as place value, subtraction or ratio really means. When children have a chance to see and touch maths in physical models, they start to develop a depth of understanding. Teachers then show how to develop this understanding using a diagram (picture) before progressing to a purely abstract approach (just symbols such as words and numbers).
Longer blocks of time
We use a Mastery curriculum designed to teach all concepts in longer blocks of time so that the children have time to understand and learn an idea in all its forms and subtleties. This curriculum is called the White Rose curriculum, and was developed by a government funded maths hub in Yorkshire. This curriculum is supported by further materials from Oxford University and the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics (NCETM.) You will see that our curriculum puts an equal emphasis on developing fluency (quick recall of facts and concepts) and then applying this to reasoning problems and problem solving.