Curriculum Intent
Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
The teaching of mathematics at The Priory Catholic Voluntary Academy ensures that all pupils:
- become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through 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
- reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
- can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and nonroutine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions. Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas.
At The Priory Catholic Voluntary Academy, there are many aspects which make up our consistently good teaching of maths. Firstly, our use of concrete object, to pictorial work to abstract concepts. We use cups, cards and specific actions and language to help the children through these steps. Secondly, through our daily key skills sessions which improve fluency and through continually recapping skills, mathematical methods for working are set into pupils’ long-term memories. Thirdly, regular reasoning and problem solving in maths lessons which encourages children to justify and explain through verbal and written work and gives them skills and methods to solve problems in real life. Through these methods, our school aims to build confident mathematicians.
