Intent, Implementation, Impact

Intent

At Ethelbert Road Primary School, we intend to provide a curriculum that recognises previous learning and builds upon it, equipping our children with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in their future endeavours. We believe in a mastery approach that includes sustained levels of challenge through varied and high-quality activities, focusing on fluency, reasoning, and problem-solving.

Through mastery, pupils are required to explore mathematics in depth, using mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain their working. A wide range of mathematical resources is used to ensure we incorporate a combination of concrete, pictorial, and abstract approaches throughout the school.

Children are taught to explain their choice of methods and to develop their mathematical reasoning skills. We encourage resilience, adaptability, and acceptance that struggle is often a necessary step in learning. Our curriculum promotes enjoyment in the learning process, fostering curiosity among learners. It enables them to make better sense of the world around them, relating the patterns between mathematics and everyday life.

At Ethelbert Road Primary School, the majority of pupils progress through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to advance to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged with rich mastery tasks and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding through additional practice before moving on.

We aim to ensure that all children:

• Become fluent in the basics of mathematics, including varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problem-solving over time, enabling pupils to recall and apply their knowledge and use their skills rapidly and accurately.
• Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, identifying patterns and relationships, and developing an argument, justification, or proof using mathematical language.
• Solve problems by applying mathematical skills to a variety of increasingly sophisticated problems, where several steps are needed to find a solution.
• Develop resilience that enables all children to reason and problem-solve with increased confidence.

Implementation

To ensure full topic coverage of the National Curriculum, we use Power Maths, supported by White Rose. This is a whole-school primary maths curriculum that creates continuity and progression in the teaching of mathematics. Daily maths lessons include fluency, reasoning, and problem-solving. Mathematics is also taught across the curriculum to ensure that skills learned in lessons are applied to other subjects, such as Science, Geography, and History.

Every class has access to Times Table Rock Stars and Numbots. Numbots is an online platform focusing on early number understanding that helps our Reception and Year One children master the necessary fluency to succeed with numbers. Times Table Rock Stars (TTRS) is primarily used by our Key Stage Two classes but will also be used by Year Two children when it is appropriate for them. TTRS is an online platform that emphasises the rapid recall of multiplication facts to enable pupils to be as successful as possible in Key Stage Two. This is a significant focus for Lower Key Stage Two, especially Year Four.

We have morning maths activities throughout the week to ensure that general maths knowledge and fluency are maintained and developed. These activities take various forms; for example: Flash Back 4, Number Sense Maths, arithmetic practice, times table practice, TTRS, or Numbots.

Every classroom features a Maths working wall kept up to date with the current learning to support the children. The wall demonstrates concepts and displays key vocabulary for the topic or lesson.

Teachers use adaptive teaching strategies to ensure appropriate challenges for all learners. Concrete manipulatives, pictorial representations, and abstract representations are employed to support and develop conceptual understanding.

Children's progress is continually monitored against expectations for their age, with teachers making formative assessment notes to inform their teaching and interventions. We strive to implement same-day interventions to keep the class together. Staff support children by running consolidation or pre-teaching sessions to ensure confidence with the skills required for upcoming lessons.

Summative assessments are completed during school assessment weeks, which take place three times a year. In Year Six, previous SATs papers can be used to assess pupils' progress. Pupil progress is discussed during Pupil Progress Meetings, and these discussions inform our upcoming planning, provision maps, and communication with parents.

Impact

The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning, and transferrable skills. With the implementation of the mathematical journey being well established and taught thoroughly in both key stages, children become confident mathematicians. By the time they reach Upper Key Stage 2, most key skills in mathematics are familiar to them, allowing teachers to focus on applying their knowledge to mathematical calculations and problems.

Evidence in Knowledge

Pupils understand how and why mathematics is used in the outside world and in the workplace. They are aware of different ways that mathematics can support their future potential.

Mathematical concepts or skills are mastered when a child can demonstrate them in multiple ways, using mathematical language to explain their ideas, and can independently apply the concept to new problems in unfamiliar situations.

Children demonstrate quick recall of facts and procedures, including the recall of times tables.

Evidence in Skills

Pupils use acquired vocabulary in maths lessons. They possess the skills to use methods independently and show resilience when tackling problems.

They exhibit the flexibility and fluidity needed to transition between different contexts and representations in mathematics.

Children take great pride in the presentation and understanding of their work.

Their learning involves recognising relationships and making connections in mathematics lessons.

Teachers plan various opportunities for children to engage with mathematics.

Pupil Voice

Through discussions and feedback, children speak enthusiastically about their maths lessons and express their love for learning mathematics. They can articulate the context in which mathematics is taught and relate it to real-life purposes.

Children display confidence and believe they can learn about new areas of mathematics while applying the knowledge and skills they already possess.

Outcomes

At the end of each year, we expect that most children will meet the Age-Related Expectations (ARE) for their year group. Some children will have progressed further and achieved Greater Depth (GDS). Children with gaps in their knowledge will continue to receive appropriate support and interventions.

Our attainment can be found on the Data and Assessment page.

Formative and summative assessment demonstrates that most children at Ethelbert Road are achieving in mathematics at age-related expectations or above.