Intent

At Buryfields we follow the mastery approach to teaching mathematics which supports children to learn maths deeply, effectively and efficiently.  The North East Hants and Surrey Maths Hub has been integral to our journey in embedding this approach in our school since 2019. We are taking part in their Mastering Number and Teaching for Mastery Sustaining programme in 2024-25. 

Our maths curriculum aims to ensure that children develop a fluency in their knowledge of key maths facts which allows them to approach calculations with greater confidence and accuracy. Another of our key objectives is ensuring that children are taught to use precise vocabulary so that they understand concepts and are able to communicate their understanding and ideas. Linked to this is our focus on encouraging reasoning – this takes confidence which is something we also promote.

Our key learning outcomes for children by the end of Year 2 are:

• To recall key maths facts fluently and confidently, and be able to apply these facts in a variety of mathematical situations
• To reason about what they do or observe, aided by their development of a specific and accurate vocabulary
• To take risks and challenge themselves, and to have no fear of getting an answer ‘wrong’ which can often hamper mathematical progress but, at the same time develop a drive for accuracy in all of their mathematical work.

 

Implementation

Planning is carefully written to ensure that all objectives within the EYFS or National Curriculum are taught within a broad Mastery framework. Our curriculum is planned to meet the needs of the pupils we currently teach with all necessary adaptations made for those children with SEND, who are not meeting or who are exceeding Age Related Expectations or who have recently joined our school, where they have followed a different curriculum.

In the EYFS maths has two strands for the ELGs: Numbers, and Numerical Patterns. The children receive whole class and adult led group teaching each week, and have access to a variety of suggested and child-led maths activities every day – both inside and outdoors. We use Numberblocks as a core element of our teaching which provides children with a really secure understanding of numbers to at least 10. We also teach Shape, Space and Measure, which, although is no longer part of the EYFS curriculum, is still important in preparing children for KS1.

We teach in a spiral way, so ensuring our children have the time to consolidate their learning. We use the CPA approach where children use concrete resources, then moving to including pictorial representations before working in a more abstract way.

All of our planning is responsive to the strengths and needs of the children, and flexibility is key to this. We strive to make our maths teaching irresistible to our children so ensuring an inviting and relevant maths lesson. All lessons are dynamic as they are not rigidly planned with set groupings; assessment for learning is essential and takes place throughout a lesson to ensure that all children are appropriately challenged and scaffolded. Deployment of adults will often be fluid in a lesson, ensuring that the teacher is able to support those most in need whilst also promoting independence as appropriate.

As well as the maths lessons in the school day we teach our 'Mastering Number' lessons straight after lunch so it is at a seperate time in the school day from the children's maths lesson and during this 15 minutes the children have the time and space to develop their knowledge of fluency and automaticity.

We work closely with Year 3 teachers and the maths subject leader from Mayhill Junior School to ensure that, even though we are two separate schools, the children experience a coherent and cohesive curriculum from Year R through to Year 3 and beyond.

Impact

Our results at the end of Year 2 and EYFS show that our children are successful mathematicians. Our pupil conferences and learning walks show that they are also enthusiastic and confident in maths, and are able and willing to talk about their approaches to solving problems and to explain what they know. 

2024 Maths Through Storytelling

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