Curriculum Intent

At Onslow Infant School it is our intent to provide children with a high-quality, broad and challenging mathematics curriculum. The exciting learning journey will allow for all children to become fluent in the fundamentals of maths, developing their conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. Children will be able to reason mathematically by justifying, making links to known facts, or providing proof using mathematical language. Understanding of concepts will be challenged through solving problems by applying their mathematic knowledge. Links within other subjects will be highlighted and skills and mathematical knowledge will be applied. We will equip children with the foundations of mathematics that are essential to everyday life.

Curriculum Implementation

In EYFS, our young mathematicians will be provided with many exciting opportunities, through planned purposeful play and a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activities, to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measure. White Rose is used to help plan mathematical progression, alongside Numberblocks videos and resources. 

Throughout Key Stage 1, we follow the White Rose Maths Schemes of Learning and supplement this with resources from NCETM Mastery documents to teach a broad and challenging curriculum. Our mathematics curriculum will provide many opportunities for children to develop confidence and fluency with whole numbers, counting and place value. The use of practical equipment, such as concrete objects and measuring tools, will support the children to gain a deeper conceptual understanding before being challenged through tasks and questions to explain their reasoning and solve a range of problems. The children are equipped with the skills to recognise shapes and their properties and measures to describe and compare different quantities such as length, mass, capacity/volume, time and money.

In each lesson there is a focus on number skills and children are given an opportunity to revisit and review misconceptions and deepen previously taught content.

Curriculum Impact

A variety of methods are used to find out what the children know and understand. Lesson activities are scaffolded to suit the different abilities and learning styles. Mathematics lessons allow for collaborative learning and thus encourage children to talk in pairs, small groups or through class discussion, to share learning. For those children who grasp concepts rapidly, they will be challenged through a range of problems, whilst those not sufficiently fluent will be provided with opportunities to consolidate their understanding through additional practice and first response intervention. In KS1, children’s understanding of taught concepts will be assessed using end of term assessment tasks from White Rose which provide opportunities for children to demonstrate their understanding fully. Evidence of the children’s learning journey through each mathematics topic will be recorded in maths books, on working walls and in independent work folders. In EYFS, children's learning is recorded on Tapestry and key physical evidence is collected in maths folders. 

As each unit of work is covered, we consider the related intended learning, recognise children who are working at or beyond the expected level for Key Stage 1, as well as identifying the children who need additional support. Children in the Foundation Stage will be assessed against the Early Years Learning Goal at the end of the year.

Mathematics monitoring includes work scrutinies, learning walks and pupil voice interviews in order to ascertain correct curriculum coverage, the quality of teaching and learning as well as the children’s attitudes to and retention of maths learning. This information is then used to inform further curriculum developments and provision is adapted accordingly.

Supporting families with Maths

Each week, Year 1 and Year 2 children will be set Maths homework on their online learning journal, Tapestry. Examples will be given of the type of problems your child has been solving and the methods they have used.

There is a "Parents’ Guide to Arithmetic" for Year 1 and Year 2 below, which details how we teach the four operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division at Onslow Infants. You may also find it useful to look at the “Progression in Calculation” document below, which details the progression children make in each operation.

“Family Maths Toolkit” is designed to support families learning maths together. It is full of ideas and activities to enjoy working through together to improve your maths. Following this link will take you to the toolkit: https://www.familymathstoolkit.org.uk/

We hope you have lots of fun having a go at some of these activities.

If you need any support or advice with the maths learning that is taking place, please do not hesitate to speak to your class teacher who will be able to support you.

Top tips

· Be positive about maths! - even if you have had bad experiences yourself.

· Point out maths in everyday life (numbers, counting, measuring) - shopping, cooking, travelling.

· Praise your child for their efforts in maths.