Mathematics at Hauxton 

At Hauxton Primary School we have chosen to adopt the Mastery approach to Mathematics. The fundamental belief behind this approach is that all children are capable of achieving in Maths and think of themselves as mathematicians. We encourage children to believe that by working hard at Maths they can succeed. We also help our children to understand that mathematics extends far beyond a school maths lesson. We plan and teach a Maths curriculum that ensures fluency in basic skills whilst giving children frequent opportunities to reason and problem solve. We draw on the 5 Big Ideas for Mastery (Representation and Structure, Mathematical thinking, Variation, Fluency and Coherence) in order to plan a carefully sequenced journey through learning both in individual lessons and throughout each unit.

The ‘concrete, pictorial, abstract’ approach is widely used to support understanding of concepts, recognising that children need to work with real objects (eg counters), before moving on to representing ideas pictorially (eg on a number line), and finally relating this to abstract representation (eg 7+3=10).

We practise number bonds, number facts and times tables, but quick recall does not necessarily indicate a strong mathematician. Choosing efficient calculation methods and using what is already known will show that children have a good grasp of number - we encourage our children to try different approaches to the same problem in order to find out what works for them.

In order to ensure regular coverage of knowledge, skills and recording methods we have chosen to adopt a ‘spiral’ curriculum structure. This means that place value and calculation strategies in particular are revised and built on each half term. This structure fits our school context and has proved highly beneficial over the two school years of Covid-19 disruption, when children have had the opportunity to revisit areas covered during home learning once back at school.

We use resources from a variety of sources including Hamilton Trust, White Rose and NCETM. This allows teachers flexibility to choose the resources which best suit their current class.