Mathematics

Intent: 

At Barley Croft Primary School , we have embraced a mastery approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics.  Our belief is that all children can be successful in the study of mathematics.  We do not accept that ‘some children cannot do maths’ or that children should be limited by prior attainment.  Maths is for everyone – you just need the right mindset!  We teach the skills to ensure our children are resilient learners who become life-long mathematicians.  We aim to deliver an inspiring and engaging mathematics curriculum through high quality teaching using Power Maths.  

The Power Maths approach enables children to be numerate, independent, enquiring and confident.   Children should not be afraid to make mistakes and should fully embrace the fact that mistakes are part of learning!  Developing a positive attitude to Maths is essential at Barley Croft.  Teachers promote children’s enjoyment of maths and provide opportunities for children to build a conceptual understanding of maths before applying their knowledge to everyday problems and challenges. We ensure that challenge is provided for all children, whatever their understanding.  Children are encouraged to be brave and push the boundaries, deepening their understanding further. 

Introduction
Barley Croft’s maths curriculum is focused on supporting every child in our school develop
into confident and enthusiastic mathematicians. We are committed to ensuring that
they leave primary school being able to apply their maths skills and knowledge across a
range of real-life situations plus we also want them to be well-prepared for secondary
school.
The way that maths is taught has changed a great deal in recent years. Many schools,
including Barley Croft, now use a mastery approach to teach maths. This simply means that
our approach is focused on helping the children to develop a deep understanding of what
they are learning in maths. In the past, children were taught methods without being given
the opportunity to understand how or why these methods work. Research has shown that
this is not a helpful way of ensuring that children become good mathematicians.
As part of our mastery curriculum, the children are encouraged to explore problems using
practical equipment to help them to develop a deeper understanding of the methods they
are learning. The problems that they explore are designed to help them see the many ways
in which maths is important to wider life and other curriculum areas. Plus there is also a
strong focus on helping the children to learn and use the vocabulary they need to explain
their mathematical thinking through the use of sentence stems. Teachers use a range of
high-quality resources during lessons, including books from the Power Maths series. These
books were written by experts in primary maths to support children with developing a deep
and thorough understanding of their learning. Power Maths KS1 and KS2 are recommended
by the DfE, having met the NCETM’s criteria for high-quality textbooks, and have been
judged as “fully delivering a mastery approach”.
 

Power Maths lessons are split into 5 parts:-
Discover
Every lesson starts with a Discover task to get children to solve a problem that aims to
generate curiosity. During the Discover section children may use manipulatives to help them
understand the maths and explain their method.
Share
The next stage encourages children to Share the methods they have tried to solve the
problem in Discover.
Think Together
We only learn when we are thinking! In this section Power Maths takes the approach “I do,
we do, you do”, as children apply the knowledge they have just learned in a series of
problems that continue to encourage thinking throughout.
Practice
Children are then ready for some independent practice in their workbooks.
Reflect
The final Reflect question helps the children evaluate whether they have understood the
key concept and small step that they have been trying to master in the lesson.
Further information about the intent and implementation of our maths curriculum can be
found in the documents below. Please refer to the calculation policies and progression maps
for an overview of how skills and knowledge in maths are developed across each year
group.