maths

Teaching of Mathematics

Coombe Hill Junior School consider mathematics as far more than simply a core curriculum topic; it is central to helping children become happy, articulate and confident individuals. Developing numerical fluency prepares children to access a world surrounded by number. It equips young people with key skills such as calculating, estimating, observing and predicting, which will be used extensively throughout their lives.

Key principles

There are certain key principles that underpin the teaching of mathematics in our school. At Coombe Hill Junior School we believe that mathematics:

• equips pupils with intellectual and practical skills to understand and make decisions about everyday life;

• is important in helping pupils to access learning and make good progress across the curriculum;

• transcends cultural boundaries and has been contributed to, as a body of knowledge, by different cultures;

• is a creative discipline that can stimulate moments of wonder, for example when connections are made and patterns are generated;

• develops pupils’ capacity to think, reason and solve problems;

• is best learnt through direct experience and the opportunity to discuss mathematical ideas and develop mathematical language.

The curriculum

We ensure every pupil the opportunity to experience success in learning and to achieve as high a standard as possible. All children are entitled to access the Mathematics National Curriculum Programmes of Study and make progress through appropriately differentiated work. Our schemes of work reflect a mastery style approach, whereby students are encouraged to develop a deeper understanding of concepts. As students master concepts to a greater depth they build on their application and reasoning skills.

All children will be given opportunities to:

• develop a sense of the size of a number and where it fits into the number system;

• know by heart number facts such as number bonds, multiplication tables, doubles and halves;

• use what they know by heart to figure out answers mentally, using jottings personal to them;

• calculate accurately and efficiently, both mentally and with pencil and paper, drawing on a range of calculation strategies;

• recognise when it is appropriate to use a calculator, and to be able to do so effectively;

• make sense of number problems, including non-routine problems, and recognise the operations needed to solve them;

• explain their methods and reasoning using correct mathematical terms;

• judge whether their answers are reasonable and have strategies for checking them where necessary;

• suggest suitable units for measuring, and make sensible estimates of measures; and

• explain and make predictions from the numbers in graphs, diagrams, charts and tables

Home support

To help parents support their children with homework, the Maths coordinators run workshops in the autumn term to explain some of the new calculation methods taught at school.  

You can find more information about supporting Maths at home here.