At Carclaze, our curriculum has been planned and implemented to ensure that every child has a sound understanding of the intricacies of mathematics. We aim for children to leave our school equipped with the mathematical skills and knowledge to enable them to thrive in life.

We teach the National Curriculum, using White Rose planning and Power Maths resources to deliver daily mathematics lessons. The objectives in each block are broken down into a series of carefully planned small steps which the teachers use to recap prior learning and move the children on through the curriculum.

Our aim is for all children to develop number fluency to the same extent that they demonstrate reading fluency - prioritising the teaching, and practice, of declarative knowledge helps to ensure that children reach automaticity when recalling and working with basic number facts. This then means that they are able to draw on these facts quickly and efficiently when learning and applying procedural and conditional skills later in the learning sequence.

Our aspiration is for every child to see themselves as a mathematician - demonstrating a confident attitude towards tackling problems both in and out of the classroom and understanding the importance of maths in the wider world.

We implement the following procedures in order to achieve desired outcomes:

Daily Mathematics lessons

Daily mathematics lessons are planned from the White Rose Schemes of work, which break National Curriculum learning objectives down into carefully sequenced, progressive 'small steps'. The vast majority of lessons are delivered using the Power Maths planning and teaching resources, where children complete their work in their Power Maths practice books. This supports the consistent use of models, images and approaches through the school, allowing children to more easily draw on prior learning.

Daily fluency

From Year 1 onwards, every class has an additional 15/20 minutes morning maths slot dedicated to fluency, core number work and consolidation of prior learning. This fluency slot can feature several different learning priorities:

• Early number fluency - children in EYFS and Key Stage 1 teach the 'Mastering Number' programme from the NCETM. This uses concrete apparatus (a rekenrek) to improve the children's fluency working with early number.
• Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) - children from Year 1 to 6 have a half termly set of declarative facts to learn, both in school and at home.
• 'Fluent in five' - provides an opportunity for children in key stages 1 and 2 to practise procedural methods taught in previous terms/years. 

Calculation policy:

We follow the 'Power Maths' calculation policies from Year 1 - 6. Please scroll down to access these documents.

Impact of the curriculum in mathematics is monitored through:  

• Learning Conversations and pupil response in lessons – pupils are able to talk confidently about their learning in mathematics to adults and to each other. They are able to explain their choice of methods and are becoming progressively more adept at reasoning and verbally discussing problems.
• Monitoring of work in books and displays – children display increasing understanding of pictorial and abstract work in books. Their improved understanding means that they are now able to apply their mathematical skills and knowledge to a wider range of problems, presented in a variety of ways.
• Images and videos of the children’s practical learning, particularly when using concrete apparatus  
• Self-assessment – children are given regular opportunities to assess their own learning and understanding. This information is used to make adaptations to lesson planning and groupings.
• Summative assessment opportunities:
  • Low-stakes testing – show improved retention of key facts, for example, time tables facts/number bonds
  • End of unit checks in Power Maths – these are administered at the end of a unit of work to assess understanding and application of the small steps taught
  • Termly summative assessments – PUMA tests are administered at the end of every term to check progress against age-related expectations
  • End of Key Stage assessments
    • EYFS - Children are assessed at the end of Reception against the Early Learning Goals to assess their understanding of Number and Numerical Patterns.
    • Year 6 (End of Key Stage 2) - children complete National Curriculum assessments which are used to inform a teacher assessment in mathematics (see table below).