St Paul's Catholic Primary School

Maths

Maths at St Paul's
At St Paul’s we aim to teach our children a rich, progressive, and sequential Maths curriculum which develops their ability to calculate, reason and solve problems, enabling them to make sense of the world around them. We aim to provide high quality mathematical earning experiences to develop children’s mathematical skills and understanding. Children are encouraged to explore Maths through practical experiences and investigative work, building a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject. We aim to give all our pupils, particularly the most disadvantaged, the knowledge, experiences and ‘cultural capital’ necessary to become educated citizens and to succeed in life. 
At St Paul’s we believe that all children can be successful in the study of mathematics. We use mixed ability groupings and do not group children by prior attainment, except for where significant gaps in learning exist. This is central to our Mastery approach to teaching and learning. Please see the following documents for a deeper look at the 5 elements of Mastery.
The following pages show the Power Maths progression in calculation (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). The consistent use of the CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach across Power Maths helps children develop mastery across all the operations in an efficient and reliable way. 
Fluency:

We are keen to improve the fluency of the children in our school, as fluency is key to accessing all areas of mathematics confidently. Knowing number facts ‘off by heart’ frees up space in a child’s working memory when they complete more complex calculations and allows children to reason and problem solve with greater depth, which alongside fluency, are the key elements of the mathematics curriculum. To Support this we use a range of tools to support fluency. We use numbots, Times Table Rockstars (TTRS) and Club99.
Numbots:

Numbots’, a programme designed to improve children’s fluency, recall and conceptual understanding of number facts. This is most successful when played for at least 3 minutes, 4-5 times a week.
Please support us by encouraging your child to play at home.
TTRS:

As a school we will be focusing on our quick recall of times table facts. We will be using Times Tables Rockstars to support the children with this. TT Rockstars is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times table practice. It is more successful when played daily in short bursts of time. Please support us with this by encouraging your child to play daily at home.
Helping your child with maths

As with reading and writing, try to make maths as fun as possible. It;s also important to show how we use mathematics skills in our everyday lives and to involve your child in this. Identifying problems and solving them can also help your child develop maths skills. If you see him or her puzzling over something, talk about the problem and try to work out the solution together. Don't shy away from maths if you didn’t like it at school. Try to find new ways to enjoy the subject with your child. Please follow the links before for lots of ideas for helping with maths at home. The NCETM videos are very helpful as they show different strategies for solving maths problems.
Let's put your skills to the test.