Saint Edmunds Catholic Primary School

We have adopted a Teaching for Mastery approach to mathematics. The content and principles underpinning this approach reflect those found in high performing education systems internationally, particularly those of east and south-east Asian countries such as Singapore, Japan, South Korea and China. Though there are many differences between the education systems of England and those of east and south-east Asia, we can learn from the ‘mastery’ approach to teaching which has been proven to improve standards of Maths.

These principles and features characterise this approach and convey how our curriculum is implemented:

·        Teachers reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards in Mathematics.

·        The large majority of children progress through the curriculum content at the same pace.

·        Differentiation is underpinned by methodical curriculum design and supported by carefully crafted lessons and resources to foster deep conceptual and procedural knowledge.

·        Practice and consolidation play a central role. Carefully designed variation within this builds fluency and understanding of underlying mathematical concepts.

·        Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual and procedural knowledge and assess children regularly to identify those requiring intervention, so that all children keep up.

To ensure consistency and progression, the school uses White Rose Maths resources which are supported by Power Maths scheme of work. This scheme is fully aligned with the White Rose Maths resources which, alongside the school’s ongoing engagement with the DfE funded Maths Hubs programme continues to ensure that staff at all levels understand the pedagogy of the approach. New concepts are shared within the context of an initial related problems, which children are able to discuss in partners. This initial problem-solving activity prompts discussion and reasoning, as well as promoting an awareness of maths in relatable real-life contexts that link to other areas of learning. In KS1, these problems are almost always presented with objects (concrete manipulatives) for children to use. Children may also use manipulatives in KS2. Teachers use careful questions to draw out children’s discussions and their reasoning. The class teacher than leads children through strategies for solving the problem, including those already discussed. Independent work provides the means for all children to develop their fluency further, before progressing to more complex related problems. Each lesson phase provides the means to achieve greater depth, with more able children being offered rich and sophisticated problems as well as exploratory, investigative tasks, within the lesson as appropriate.