Livingstone Primary School

Mathematics is a skill that is and will always be an essential part of everyday life. Therefore, it plays a key role in our broad and balanced curriculum at Livingstone Primary School. The intention of our mathematics curriculum is to provide children with the fundamental skills that enable them to reason and to solve problems, whilst providing them with a lifelong enjoyment of mathematics through fun and engaging lessons. It is also to provide them with the ability to transfer the skills they have learnt in order to apply them to real life experiences. We believe that mathematical fluency is an essential life skill and is a pre-requisite for to being able to reason and problem solve. We utilize the mastery approach in order to provide children with a long lasting and deeper understanding of mathematics.

Our mathematics curriculum provides breadth and balance, is engaging to all pupils and is differentiated to support the needs of all children, in order for them to make progress and excel. As a school, we believe that by following the concrete, pictorial, abstract approach, in line with the mastery approach, children gain a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts, which they can then apply to a variety of different contexts, be this reasoning, problem solving or real life scenarios.

From Reception to Year 6, children follow the white rose scheme of learning. This provides children with the core mathematical skills that they can apply to differing scenarios. Children are presented with opportunities to develop fluency, to reason and to problem solve.

Our maths curriculum is also supported through the implementation of resources from Classroom Secrets. The small steps resources from both White Rose and Classroom Secrets enable the teaching sequence to be broken down into achievable steps. There are also scaffolding resources available to provide children who require additional guidance the necessary support to succeed. This may be via a concrete object with in the classroom or a pictorial representation. For children who understand the concepts quicker, teachers put extension challenges in place to deepen their understanding. This can be via open-ended challenge questions that deepen thinking.

Daily assessment is incorporated throughout the lesson through live and verbal feedback. There are also ‘end of block’ assessments to identify the children’s understanding of each mathematical topic. This also provides teachers with a clear understanding of any gaps in knowledge.

Times tables are a key part of the mathematical learning at Livingstone Primary, as they provide a basis for a large proportion of mathematical concepts. Children are supported to be fluent in their times tables up to 12 x 12 by the end of year 4. This starts with the use of Numbots in KS1 building on their subitising, number recognition and addition and subtraction skills. Children then progress to using TT Rockstars in order to develop their fluency and recall of their times tables. The children also have the opportunity to develop their mathematical understanding through cross-curricular learning in a range of other subjects.

As always, everything we do at Livingstone Primary is with the child at mind. Pupils and staff build strong relationships which creates an atmosphere that is conducive to success. Work is planned to address any misconceptions children may have, as well as identify and fill gaps in learning. The impact of the mathematics curriculum is evident in the progression of assessment data and through book looks, learning walks and observations. Children are assessed formally once a term as well as KS1 statutory assessments, year 4 MTC, end of block checks and Year 6 SATs. This provides an ongoing picture of mathematics across the school.