Maths Vision Statement
At Shefford Lower School we know that all children can succeed in Mathematics, and we strive to equip children with the knowledge and skills to do this. We provide a high-quality mathematics education to all children by delivering consistently rich and stimulating lessons, following our children’s learning journeys closely. Lessons help children to develop lively, enquiring minds encouraging pupils to become self- motivated, confident, and capable to solve problems that will become an integral part of their future.
The National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure 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 have conceptual understanding and can recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems
• can 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 non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
Years 1-4 follow the Third Space Learning scheme which has the philosophy that ‘Every child can succeed in maths.’ It uses small manageable steps which should help the children understand concepts better and it has an integrated approach to fluency, reasoning and problem solving. It builds understanding using concrete resources, progressing to pictorial representations, and ending with abstract reasoning when concepts are fully understood. Teachers may supplement these plans with rich activities, such as those devised by ‘Nrich’ for more able children.
We follow a mastery-based curriculum which strives to show children why things work in maths, not just how they work. Mastery in Maths means children can solve problems in unfamiliar situations and settings, applying their secure understanding of mathematical concepts with confidence.