The Northwick park Academy Trust aims to provide a quality mathematics curriculum that fosters a positive and enthusiastic attitude in pupils that will stay with them in the future. We believe that mathematics is integral to all aspects of everyday life and that it is crucial that children have a thorough grasp of mathematical skills in order to participate fully as valued members of society and to fulfil their potential. We aim to provide children with high quality teaching that encourages them to be numerate, creative, independent, inquisitive and confident whilst fostering an environment where pupils understand that we learn from mistakes. We recognise that mathematics is an interconnected subject and that it is vital that pupils can make links between mathematical concepts and also apply their knowledge to science and other subjects.  

Implementation

In Foundation Stage, children follow the EYFS curriculum.  Children will develop of a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built. We are committed to ensuring the confident development of number sense and put a strong emphasis on the mastery of early key concepts including the formation of the digits 0-9. The curriculum encourages children to develop their spatial reasoning skills and other key mathematical concepts through a range of mathematical opportunities provided throughout the Foundation Stage day.

In Years 1 to 6, children are taught maths in a dedicated timetabled lesson each day. Children are taught in ability year group sets with additional teachers available in most year groups. Learning support assistants are deployed according to the needs of pupils in order to provide the most effective support.  The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress are always based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp key concepts rapidly are challenged whilst those who are not sufficiently fluent are given opportunities to consolidate their understanding, through additional practice. Children are also given some ownership of their own learning, choosing their own level of task. This system is based on teachers secure subject knowledge and understanding of what the minimum expectation is for the majority of the pupils. Our main focus is on delivering quality first teaching, with teachers being clear about ‘where their children are’, ‘where they need to be’ and ‘how they are going to get them there’.

Impact 

We aim for all children to understand the relevance of what they are learning in relation to real world concepts and that they make measurable progress against their own targets. We have worked hard to foster an environment of positive growth mindset, where it is ‘ok’ to be wrong because the journey to finding out the answer is more important

The quality first teaching of mathematics within the Academy Trust, the positive approach by both staff and pupils and the leadership of the subject enables pupils to make progress and for us to maintain good standards, with achievement at the end of Key Stage 2 above the national average for those reaching the expected level.