Here at St Joseph's, we are passionate about maths and for the high quality teaching and learning of mathematics.

We believe that mathematics is a creative and highly interconnected 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. Our 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.

'We  had  partners  and  we  played  snakes  and ladders.  We  had  a dice and counters and we counted the dots.' Year 1 pupil

Every day, your child takes part in a variety of maths learning opportunities.

Our maths lessons are carefully designed to ensure that every child achieves well and is challenged to think critically about their learning.  We also do our best to engage our pupils through stimulating games, fun challenges and thought-provoking activities which relate to your child’s everyday life.

We believe that every child can succeed in maths and we aim to instil this belief in the children themselves.  

We are on a journey of embedding the principles of Teaching for Mastery across our school, a product of extensive research into the highly successful teaching practice in Singapore and Shanghai.  A whole class teaching approach is adopted, keeping the class working together, with no acceleration to new content. This is to avoid superficial, surface learning and foster a deep, secure understanding of all the concepts taught. The learning needs of every child are addressed through skillful questioning and appropriate intervention – this provides the necessary scaffolding or challenge for all. 

'We have been looking at learning the 8 times tables in maths this week. We also looked at rearranging the equation so it makes more sense. An example would be 205 + 17 - 5. I would do the minus 5 part first because it takes us to a 100 number and that makes it easier to add on the 17.' Year 4 pupil

Many parents will find that the way maths is taught now is very different from their own experience. If there are aspects of maths you would like to know more about, please try to attend one of our parent workshops, discuss with your child’s teacher or chat with us before or after school.

Mr Gunter and Mrs Murray

Maths Subject Leads

'We know that there are 180 degrees in a triangle. Knowing this fact helps us to find missing angles in equilateral, scalene and isosceles triangles.' Year 6 pupil

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately
• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
• can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions

Planning

We use the NCETM Primary curriculum prioritisation materials to guide our planning.  Learning outcomes are broken down into small steps to ensure a deep understanding of concepts.

Early Years and Foundation Stage

Our children are taught maths in line with the Early Years Framework.  We use the 'Mastering Number' NCETM maths programme to ensure that our children build strong foundations for their learning in key stage 1.  We also ensure that our children experience maths through our continuous and enhanced provision.  

Maths Highlights