Mathematics at St James' CE Junior School

At St James' we adopt a ‘Maths mastery’ approach to teaching and learning. ‘Maths mastery’ means we aim for pupils of all ages to acquire a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of maths. We aim to provide every child with a solid enough understanding of the subject to enable them to be confident and progress as they move along their education journey. Above all, we want all children to enjoy learning maths. To support this, we use White Rose Maths planning materials as well as a wide range of other materials which we have developed over the years. This ensures we deliver a well sequenced maths curriculum which is engaging and is tailored to the learning needs of all children. We seek to be responsive to the needs of the children through well planned questioning within lessons. Teachers also deliver regular follow up sessions known as ‘Power up Maths’. This allows teachers to further support groups of children who need it by providing immediate feedback or tackling misconceptions as well as preparing children for what is coming next. We use 'Flashback 4' at the start of most lessons to recap previous learning so that children frequently revisit and remember what they have learnt. We use discrete 'Quick Maths Arithmetic' sessions to build children's calculation ability, as well as encouraging them to look at the numbers and find quicker more efficient ways of calculating. An example set of these questions for each year group can be found in the download section at the bottom of this page. We also use Times Table Rock Stars to strengthen knowledge of times table facts.

Supporting your child

Free workbooks

Follow the link below to download additional workbooks to help you support your child with Maths at home.

https://whiterosemaths.com/parent-resources#download

Advice and Guidance 

Explore the Whiterose website to discover a wealth of resources.

https://whiterosemaths.com/advice-and-guidance

Calculation policies

Find these in the 'files to download' section at the bottom of this page. These go through the various models, representations and methods that your child will use in each year group. 

The five key ideas that underpin a Maths Mastery approach.

Coherence

Lessons are broken down into small connected steps that build upon each other and gradually unfold the concept. This means that:

1) All children can access the learning

2) All children work to securely understand the mathematical concept and make generalisations about it. 

3) Children are able to apply the concept to a range of contexts.

Representation and Structure

A range of representations (maths equipment, pictures, diagrams and models) are used in maths lessons in order to show, and better understand, the mathematical structure being taught. This ensures that children have a strong visual foundation, which underpins a secure understanding of the structutre of the maths, before moving on to doing the maths without using the representation. 

Mathematical Thinking

In every maths lesson we plan opportunities for children to actively think about, reason and discuss the maths they are learning. We scaffold good explanations by modelling good mathematical talk and practising the use of accurate mathematical vocabulary. In this way, children become effective and active learners with a deeper understanding than if they were merely passive recipients of the learning. 

Fluency

Children need quick and efficient recall of facts and procedures so that they can fluidly between areas of mathematics. All children have  short arithmetic sessions twice a week. These sessions are planned by teachers to systematically cover the skills they need in each year group. Children then use these skills fluently, and in different contexts, in the main maths lesson. 

Variation

Teachers represent the concept being taught, often in more than one way. This draws attention to key patterns and links between different areas of maths and develops a deep understanding of the subject. Teachers ask questions such as: ‘What is the same, what is different?’; ‘Which is the odd one out?'; ‘How else could this be shown?’; in order to help children develop this depth. Teachers plan activities and exercises to represent concepts in different ways and that draw attention to mathematical relationships.