Maths

Mathematics Purpose of Study and Intent

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

The Vision

At Topcliffe we believe that mathematics is an important life skill and we endeavour to ensure that maths is relevant, enjoyable, challenging and above all a consistent approach across the whole school.

The Curriculum

At Topcliffe, we follow the National Curriculum mastery approach for mathematics while embracing other approaches and elements to suit the needs of our pupils and secure best outcomes.

Children at Topcliffe become confident mathematicians though a progression of skills and strategies:

1) Through highly effective teacher modelling, children are exposed to concrete manipulatives in order to underpin early understanding of the key mathematical concepts being taught.

2) Children are given the opportunity to practise key concepts in order to develop fluency.

3) To develop deeper conceptual understanding, the children are challenged through a series of probing questions which progress from application of fluency, through thinking, explaining, and reasoning through to Greater Depth using a range of concrete, visual and abstract methods.

At Topcliffe, we follow a cyclical curricular approach which allows children to revisit the key strands of the curriculum, which we believe gives the opportunity to progress through the journey from Fluency through to rich and complex questions

"Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before acceleration through new content."                            

Ofsted

In order to support a mastery curriculum in maths, Topcliffe’s aim is that all children become fluent mathematicians and are able to use and apply those skills in a range of contexts.

Therefore, children are guided through 5 areas of learning:

EYFS—Visual, Fluency and Thinking

KS1—Visual, Fluency, Thinking and Explaining in Y2 

KS2—Visual, Fluency, Thinking, Explaining and Rich and Complex

Children in Key Stage One also take part in the Mastering Number programme through our work with the Maths Hub.

Our Maths Curriculum Long Term overviews can be found here: Whole-School-Maths-Long-Term-Plan-based-on-12-week-terms.pdf