Maths

We have high expectations that all children can and will achieve. Pupils are taught through whole class teaching where they all work together on the same lesson content at the same time. Each topic is studied in depth and we aim for the teacher not  to move on to the next stage until all children demonstrate understanding. Ideas are revisited at higher levels as the curriculum spirals through the years. Our caring ethos ensures that any children who fail to grasp a concept are identified early for intervention which will support them to move on with the whole class as soon as possible. Those pupils who grasp new content quickly, are challenged to gain deeper understanding of the topic. All of this enables our pupils to reach their full potential and be successful.

Tasks within Maths No Problem! are designed to be easy for pupils to access while still providing challenge. For high attaining learners, the textbooks include questions to develop higher-order thinking skills. Our approach to reasoning and problem-solving means that each child has their own personal maths journal where they are set tasks to challenge them and deepen their mathematical understanding. This approach encourages children to have  positive attitudes and develop a growth mindset.

Jerome Bruner's work suggests that pupils learn new concepts best by initially using concrete materials such as counters, the by progressing to drawing pictorial representations before finally using more abstract symbols such as the equals sign. Maths No Problem! follows this approach and we ensure that concrete materials are available throughout school for children to access, right from EYFS up to Year 6.

Maths Policy

Click on each year group to see an overview of the maths curriculum:

Year 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 5Year 6

At Hunslet Carr, we develop mathematical fluency through daily mental calculations and written arithmetic work. These fluency sessions are vital in order to ensure that our pupils are practising their mathematical fluency and are confident using written arithmetic methods ahead of the end of KS1 and KS2 assessments. As a school, we use Fluent in Five to develop fluency alongside MNP! to develop mathematical reasoning. By using Fluent in Five alonside MNP!, we are able to develop the children's calculation methods in order to help them feel more confident when reasoning and problem-solving in maths lessons and day-to-day life.

Fluent in Five provides a daily set of arithmetic practice, designed to help children in Years 1-6 to develop and maintain fluency in both written and metal calculations. The structure of Fluent in Five is also designed to help children distinguish between written and mental calculations.
Regular practice of mental and written arithmetic skills is important in order to keep calculation skills fresh. This is especially  important given MNP! structures the curriculum with longer blocks spent on each topic area, but without each topic area being revisited.

We have high expectations that all children can and will achieve - we know that developing the fluency of our pupils will ensure they have the required skills to take problems in unfamiliar concepts and situations. Pupils are taught methods through teaching, modelling and then children have a go independently. Our caring ethos ensures that any children who struggle with the Fluent in Five questions are identified early for intervention which will support them to move on with the whole class as soon as possible. Those pupils who grasp new content quickly, are challenged to gain deeper understanding of the topic by explaining their methods and creating their own challenges. All of this enables our pupils to reach their full potential and be successful.

The rationale  behind why we use Fluent in Five

At Hunslet Carr, we teach our maths in EYFS following a  Mastery approach so that we have high expectations for all of our children and don't put a ceiling on their learning. Successful teaching of Mastery maths in the EYFS lies within the context of high quality classroom provision, based within our indoor and outdoor learning environments. Our mathematically rich environment provides a range of contexts for our children to explore concepts using different representations on multiple occasions, using concrete, pictorial and abstract resources:

It is important that we focus upon deepening our children's mathematical understanding, and not accelerate through learning. As  we are a caring school, the emphasis is placed on the enjoyment of mathematical ideas, language and activities as well as purposeful interactions with confident adults.

Our children are encouraged to communicate their mathematical thinking in a wide variety of ways including:
manipulation of resources, gesture, pointing, body language, mark-making and talk. This allows our children to acquire    a secure and long-term understanding of maths, making continual progress in order to move onto topics, which are more complex.
Mastery Maths in our EYFS is planned for in a range of ways including daily focussed  sessions, continuous provision and focussed interventions. Our curriculum is designed to focus on the six key areas of mastery in considerable depth. These areas are:

• Cardinality  and counting
• Comparison
• Composition
• Pattern
• Shap and Space
• Measure

We use a range of resources to support our curriculum including guidance from the White Rose Maths Hub, Number Blocks, NCETM Early Years Area, NRich and  Learning Trajectories.
Our current curriculum explores each number in depth, focussing on its links to real live as well a functions. For example when exploring the number 3, we look at the '3 'ness' of 3, 3 sided shapes, 3 step patterns and real-life links such as the house number 3 and being the 3rd house in the road. The children are encouraged to explore patterns within numbers and in turn innately experiment with relationships between our six key areas of mastery