" Inspiring us all to create a better world"

Matthew 5: 13-15 " You are the salt of the earth...you are the light of the world."

Here at Holmer C of E Academy School,  we understand that mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected area of the curriculum, which is essential for everyday life. We have worked hard to create vibrant, challenging and engaging environments while ensuring that the high expectations of the learning objectives are met. We strongly believe that a high quality, contextualised mathematics education provides children with a solid foundation for understanding the world and strengthens their ability to reason mathematically. Our aim is for our pupils to foster a love of mathematics and an ability to show resilience and apply the skills learnt in the real world. Our primary objective is to fulfil our School Aim of “Inspiring us all to create a better world ” through “Generosity of Spirit”, “ Commitment to Excellence” and “Service to Others.”  and live by our Holmer Academy Values.

Our aim is that pupils will:

• Gain fluency in the fundamentals of mathematics.
• Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, understanding relationships and generalisations, developing convincing explanations, justification or proof using mathematical language.
• Solve problems through the process of applying their mathematical skills to a variety of problems with increasing complexity.
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In order to achieve this, our curriculum offer ensures pupils develop their declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge. We develop declarative knowledge by teaching the mathematical facts, concepts and rules, the procedural knowledge by ensuring pupils know how to perform the steps in a process and the conditional knowledge by providing children with the ability to know when to use a procedure, skill or strategy.

Our expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at the same pace. Pupils who readily grasp concepts will be challenged and offered a variety of sophisticated problems to solve. Those pupils who need more help with developing their mathematical fluency, will be offered support to consolidate their understanding and have intervention support.

We use concrete resources and manipulatives to ensure pupils are actively engaged and hands on during whole class teaching, as well as for independent activities. This allows children to grasp a secure understanding of the size of the numbers and place value and gain in confidence by using them alongside formal written methods, until they are confident with working in the abstract.

EYFS and Key Stage 1

Following recommendations made from the latest Ofsted Maths Subject Report (July 2023), Holmer C of E Academy implements Mastering Number in our EYFS and, in KS1 classes, alongside White Rose Maths This programme aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children from Reception through to Year 1 and Year 2. The aim over time is that children will leave KS1 with fluency in calculation and a confidence and flexibility with number. In EYFS supplement this with evenly spread Geometry to our pupils have a secure understanding of the different areas in maths. Attention has also been given to key knowledge and understanding needed in Reception classes, and progression through KS1 to support success in the future.

Lower Key Stage 2 – Year 3 and 4

During their time in the lower key stage, we aim to ensure that all pupils are fluent with place value, the four operations and number facts. Along with this, we aim to equip children with a secure understanding of efficient written methods, as well as strong mental calculations. Pupils will also develop their problem-solving ability to approach a variety of problems with confidence, including simple fractions and decimal place value. Alongside this, pupils will gain the ability to draw with increasing accuracy and develop mathematical reasoning, in order to analyse shapes and their properties. During this time, teaching will ensure that pupils can accurately measure, making connections between measure and number.

By the end of Year 4, pupils need to be fluent in times table recall to the 12 x table. We use Times Tables Rockstars as a fun and engaging way to practise Times Tables and every child has an account so they are able to access it at home.

Upper Key Stage Two- Year 5 and 6

The focus in upper key stage two is to build upon the solid foundations of the lower key stage, extending pupils’ understanding of place value and the number system to now also including larger integers. Further connections will be developed between multiplication and division along with fractions, decimals, percentages and ratio.

Pupils will be developing their ability to solve a wider range of problems with properties of numbers and arithmetic increasing in complexity. These will require the use of efficient written methods and mental methods of calculating. The language of algebra will also be introduced at this stage. Teaching in geometry and measures will consolidate and further extend pupils’ knowledge developed in number. Shapes will need to be classified with increasingly complex geometric properties and teaching will ensure the appropriate vocabulary is learnt, in order to describe them. Teachers will ensure that pupils are fluent in written methods for all four operations, as well as in working with fractions, decimals and percentages. The aim, by the end of KS2 is for our pupils to be equipped with the maths knowledge, skills and understanding needed to begin their mathematical journey in KS3.

Working Walls

The working walls in each classroom consistently follow the format below, with the place value chart appropriate for each year group. They are used to supplement the learning taking place in class, providing a visual stimulus and reminder for children.  Prior knowledge is displayed to remind pupils of previous learning, as well as appropriate vocabulary. Children are reminded to use this vocabulary when discussing their maths work and when answering reasoning and problem solving questions. 

Maths in Year 2

Here is a website full of maths practise questions which are very similar to those the children will face in their end of year tests. There are over 100 pages of them, from number, to measure to data handling! Have a look at them with your child and ask them how they'd tackle the reasoning problems. Work with them to solve the problems. This will prove valuable practise across all areas of maths to support your child.

https://mathsmadeeasy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/year-2-maths-new-syllabus-questions.pdf