Maths

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that is essential for everyday life and building successful global citizens.

At Fen Ditton, we deliver a mastery mathematics curriculum whereby children are challenged to deepen their understanding before accelerating on to new concepts. Mathematical topics are covered in depth and children are given regular opportunities to think deeply about mathematics, enabling children to store mathematical knowledge and understanding in their long-term memories.

There are five big ideas that underpin teaching for mastery:

• Coherence: Lessons are broken down into small, connected steps that gradually unfold the concept, providing access for all children and leading to a generalisation of the concept and the ability to apply the concept to a range of contexts.
• Representation and Structure: Representations used in lessons expose the mathematical structure being taught, the aim being that students can do the maths without recourse to the representation.
• Mathematical Thinking: If taught ideas are to be understood deeply, they must not merely be passively received but must be worked on by the student: thought about, reasoned with and discussed with others.
• Fluency: Quick and efficient recall of facts and procedures and the flexibility to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics.
• Variation: Variation is twofold. It is firstly about how the teacher represents the concept being taught, often in more than one way, to draw attention to critical aspects, and to develop deep and holistic understanding. It is also about the sequencing of the episodes, activities and exercises used within a lesson and follow up practice, paying attention to what is kept the same and what changes, to connect the mathematics and draw attention to mathematical relationships and structure.

At Fen Ditton, from Reception to Year 6, our mathematics lessons follow the White Rose Mastery Curriculum as well as being complimented by additional guidance and resources including the NCETM resources and DFE Mathematics Guidance. The maths curriculum provides regular opportunities for children to build their skills in the different elements of maths:

• Fluency – knowing key mathematical facts and being able to recall them quickly and accurately.
• Reasoning – applying logical thinking to a situation to derive the correct problem solving strategy for a given question, and using this method to develop and describe a solution.
• Problem Solving – finding a way to apply knowledge and skills you have to answer unfamiliar types of problems.