At Robert Miles Junior School we have the belief that all children can achieve in mathematics. We do not set artificial ceilings and are prepared for learners to surprise us. Through a well-crafted, flexible curriculum, the use of small, carefully thought-through teaching steps, a focus on developing deep and secure understanding at all stages and continual use of assessment to identify and address misconceptions, we aim for our children to be confident mathematicians with a secure understanding.

Our approach is underpinned by the three aims of the national curriculum: fluency, reasoning and problem solving. We aim for our pupils to:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics so that they develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
• Have an appreciation of number and number operations, which enables mental calculations and written procedures to be performed efficiently, fluently and accurately.
• Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language.
• Be able to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including in unfamiliar contexts and to real-life situations.

How is our Curriculum Designed?

We have developed a progressive curriculum which builds up over and within years through carefully thought-out sequenced steps. Teaching is organised into blocks which ensure that children are able to gain a secure understanding of that particular area of mathematics before moving on to new content. These blocks are carefully planned and ordered so that prerequisite skills are embedded and then reinforced in later units. Each unit builds on learning from the previous year and has been designed so that links between concepts can be made, enabling children to deepen their understanding as well as making connections across the different areas of learning. Each year starts which a significant focus on securing understanding in place value and calculations as these are the bedrocks of the curriculum.

How are Mathematics Lessons Organised?

Hour-long maths lessons take place daily in all classrooms. In addition to this, each class starts the day with a ‘Morning Workout’ where children work on key skills from previously taught lessons and units from both the current year and previous ones. Significant focus is also placed on the use of Times Tables Rock Stars, along with other regular short burst activities in class, in order to secure times tables understanding and recall.

The planning and teaching of lessons is underpinned by the five big ideas outlined by the NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics): coherence, representation and structure, mathematical thinking, fluency and variation.