"The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics." - Paul Halmos 

Mathematics Overview:

Mathematics is important in everyday life. It is integral to all aspects of life and with this in mind at Aston Clinton School we endeavour to ensure that children develop a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards mathematics that will stay with them beyond their time at our school. We follow a mastery approach to Mathematics using resources from Power Maths and White Rose Maths Hub to support teachers in delivering this approach.

Intent

At Aston Clinton School, we believe that Mathematics is a key skill that helps us to make sense of the world around us. It enables children to understand and appreciate relationships and patterns in their everyday lives. Through their growing knowledge and understanding, children learn to understand and apply their knowledge to solve real life problems. Our school’s curriculum drivers (Standards, Engagement, Enquiry, Diversity and Self) are woven through Mathematics to provide a wider context for learning through an interconnected narrative.

At Aston Clinton School, we also believe that Mathematics equips children with a uniquely powerful set of tools to understand and change the world. These tools include logical reasoning, problem-solving skills and the ability to think in abstract ways.

Mathematics 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.

Implementation

As part of the mastery approach, a positive teacher mind-set and strong subject knowledge are key to student success in Mathematics. The school is committed to providing a purposeful and empowering Mathematics curriculum. It is not the case that some pupils can do Mathematics and others cannot; no pupil should be left behind and the focus is keeping up over catching up. By making high expectations clear and emphasising the value of Mathematics education, pupils are encouraged to build confidence, resilience and aspire to achieve. Abilities are neither fixed nor innate, but can be developed through practice, support, dedication and hard work. Natural talent is just a starting point and does not determine who has more or less potential to achieve. This way, pupils at the school are broadening their horizons with a Mathematics curriculum that fully prepares learners for their next steps in their school career and opens doors to understanding their place and the place of Mathematics in the wider world, regardless of a child’s background and ability.

Our Mathematics curriculum is diligently sequenced to ensure that knowledge gained is cumulative; this aids progression as well as frequently providing pupils with the opportunity to draw on knowledge from previous year groups through our spaced retrieval strategies. Through this, our pupils understand the importance of the knowledge they gain through their Mathematics lessons while at Aston Clinton and how it can be transferred to all areas of the curriculum. Providing pupils with these opportunities to put into practice what they have learnt, we aim to ensure they are not only secondary school ready but can apply what they’ve learnt from primary school to their future career paths.

At Aston Clinton, we use Power Maths to support our Mathematics curriculum.  All teachers have access to the Power Maths ‘A Guide to Teaching for Mastery’ textbooks for each term for their relevant year group as well as an online log in (online resources, teaching tools etc).  

Power Maths makes mastery practical and achievable by providing the structures, pathways, content, tools and support needed to make it happen in every classroom. To develop mastery in maths, children need to be enabled to acquire a deep understanding of maths concepts, structures and procedures, step by step. Complex mathematical concepts are built on simpler conceptual components and when children understand every step in the learning sequence, maths becomes transparent and makes logical sense. Interactive lessons establish deep understanding in small steps, as well as effortless fluency in key facts such as times tables and number bonds. The whole class works on the same content and no child is left behind.  

End Point - By the time our Mathematicians leave us in year 6 we want them to have:

• An understanding of the important concepts and an ability to make connections within mathematics.

• A broad range of skills in using and applying mathematics.

• Fluent knowledge and recall of number facts and the number system.

• The ability to show initiative in solving problems in a wide range of contexts, including the new or unusual.

• The ability to think independently and to persevere when faced with challenges, showing a confidence of success.

• The ability to embrace the value of learning from mistakes and false starts.

• The ability to reason, generalise and make sense of solutions.

• Fluency in performing written and mental calculations and mathematical techniques.

• A wide range of mathematical vocabulary.

• A commitment to and passion for the subject.

Impact

The exploration of Mathematics at Aston Clinton is interactive and engaging, with content relevant to children’s real-world experiences and contextualised thus to support consolidation and retainment of knowledge and skill.

Children approach mathematical study with confidence and enthusiasm, and view tasks and challenges that call for application of varied knowledge across units of work and the selection of multiple skills with self-assuredly and a willingness to collaborate.

Approach and response to reasoning activities will improve term on term, with the expectation that by the end of the year, children are happy to accurately define and use mathematical vocabulary introduced by their teacher.

Teaching and support staff should also see this period of implementation as an opportunity to highlight and further improve concepts that are received well and have clear impact on progress and learning, while also analysing and evaluating practice that needs to be addressed, reviewed or replaced.

Cakes and Calculations

We hope you enjoyed our 'Cakes and Calculations' event on 9th November.  Here is some of the feedback we received:

Thank you so much Miss Keen.  A fantastic opportunity for us and great Idea to take part in activities with the children and we loved the welcome tea and cakes of course. Well done and thank you for the great idea. 

Please can I pass on my thanks for the event. My child absolutely loved it and my mother-in-law was very impressed and thought it was a brilliant event.

Thank you so much for yesterday; my child and I both loved it. It was great to be back in the school again and seeing them in their learning environment. Thanks again for everything that you do for the children, my daughter loves coming to school which is incredible. 

It was really fun and a great time, just like a special family time with your kid.  Thank you for such a great time!

Thank-you for organising the cake and calculations today. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my 2 doing work and I could tell they were excited about me being there. My son made me play countdown this evening before bed and my daughter asked me to help her practice her 4 times tables (as I beat her in the dice game! 😉) so it has brought enthusiasm about maths.
 

If you weren't able to attend, here is the information for each year group.

For more details about your child's learning, please use the following link to the year group learning pages.