Mathematics

Curriculum Intent

At Woodside Academy Trust, we believe that Maths is a fundamental corner stone of our curriculum and is designed to engage and captivate children whilst providing them with the mathematical skills that are needed for the next stage in their educational journey and for later life. We want our children to be confident mathematicians that are fluent, can reason and solve problems with a secure understanding across concrete, pictorial and abstract methods of maths. Our maths curriculum provides opportunities to connect, consolidate and reinforce maths skills whilst also developing fluency in both arithmetic and times tables to allow children to be able to access all areas of learning within mathematics. Key instant recall facts and concepts for each year group are carefully sequenced and mapped for each half term.

To ensure that all pupils reach their full potential, their individual needs and abilities are recognised and developed within a caring and supportive environment. This journey begins in Early Years and is achieved through providing stimulating practical investigations, real world projects, role play areas and problem solving across the curriculum to ensure the very best start to children’s understanding of mathematical concepts and development of mathematic skills. This fundamental start to a child’s mathematical journey enables all children to have access to a full curriculum as they move up throughout school which enables them to achieve confidence and competence or in other words, ‘mastery’, in maths. This mastery approach to mathematics means that pupils need to develop three forms of knowledge:

Fluency (Factual) I know that…
Problem Solving (Procedural) I know how…
Reasoning (Conceptual) I know why…

When pupils are given opportunities to develop their fluency, problem solving and reasoning skills, they are able to develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and become more proficient in their skills and application of mathematical knowledge.