At Sacred Heart, we believe that Mathematics is essential to everyday life. It provides a foundation for understanding the world, enabling us to appreciate relationships and patterns in both number and space. Our aim is for all children to become confident, fluent and resilient mathematicians, empowering them to reason and solve problems in a range of contexts, and develop a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
At Sacred Heart, our Mathematics curriculum is taught through the use of the concrete-pictorial-abstract (C-P-A) approach, which research demonstrates enable pupils to develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts.
Every lesson provides opportunities for children to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately as well as to reason and solve problems. Children solve the problems using the C-P-A approach and, after exploring their own methods, they are guided towards the most efficient approach.
At Sacred Heart, the Teaching of Mathematics is broken down into 3 strands and defined as:
Fluency: A fundamental of mathematics, including varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
Reasoning: The bridge between fluency and problem solving. The use of language to explain and justify their methods and choices allows children to use the former to accurately carry out the latter.
Problem Solving: Applying fluency to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
Children spend time in lessons working independently and/or with partners to support articulation of their ideas before showing deeper understanding with independent work. They are encouraged to discuss their reasoning using key mathematical vocabulary.
Our expectation is that the majority of children will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged by being offered rich reasoning and problem-solving activities. Those who are not sufficiently fluent will be offered additional practice to try and close any gaps in understanding. Intervention sessions are led as soon as possible after the lesson.
The content of the Mathematics Curriculum that is taught at the school is based around the Mathematics programme of study in the National Curriculum 2014. The class Termly Curriculum Outlines, also provide more detailed information of the how the termly objectives are to be taught.
The school uses the White Rose scheme of learning as the basis for its curriculum plan - see White Rose Scheme of Learning for more information.