Intent

The intent behind our mathematics curriculum is to make pupils feel confident, supported and challenged.  We want pupils to embrace mathematics and foster a lifelong love of the subject applying it to other areas of the curriculum.  Pupils will be eager to talk about their work, be engaged and question their understanding to further their learning. Pupils will understand the importance of mathematics in the real world as well as recognising and applying connections.  Our aim is to create a 'maths' buzz in every classroom. 

Teaching for Mastery

Cherry Orchard has been proud to be part of a 'Teaching for Mastery' work group with other school across the Central Maths Hub.  Staff from the school have worked alongside other professionals to develop pedagogy  and in turn to make a difference to our pupils' mathematical understanding.  

Five Big Ideas

Within the Teaching for Mastery approach there are five 'big ideas' which we follow:

Representation and structure – Maths is abstract. The representations provide access and develop children’s understanding. Using the CPA model (concrete, pictorial, abstract) we use equipment to show representations such as Base 10, counters, place value counters, Numicon. Abstract is most important but using concrete and pictorial gets the children to the abstract. 

Mathematical thinking - Getting children to spot patterns, relationships, reasoning and connections within maths.  Asking children to think about maths in another context.

Fluency - Developing efficiency, accuracy and flexibility. Knowing number facts so it doesn’t get in the way of conceptual problems, e.g. knowing 8+9 is the same as 8+8+1. Being able to speak mathematically – sentence stems.  Knowing when to use appropriate method.

Variation – Representing the same problem in different ways to deepen understanding. E.g. 2 x 3, 2 x 30, 2 x 300. Making connections.

Coherence – Teaching takes place in small steps.  The children get it and then move onto the next step, seeing the connections between them. The teacher provides the steps but the children take and make connections, reasoning along the way.

   

In line with the Dfe guidance on curriculum prioritisation, Cherry Orchard is using the NCETM long term overview.  These are broadly followed depending upon the understanding of the pupils.  Some units more time is spent and some units less time is spent.  These are supplemented with the White Rose Hub Maths resources.  Click on the button below to view the curriculum overviews for each year group.