Our Vision for Mathematics
At Wouldham, our vision is to ensure that all children have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts and develop a love of maths through our mastery curriculum. Our intent is that all children have the opportunity to have a sound understanding of mathematics and become life-long mathematicians, problem-solvers and deep thinkers. As children progress through our school they establish firm foundations of maths through carefully planned opportunities that are active, creative and challenge all.
At Wouldham the aim of our maths curriculum is to encourage and develop:
- Enjoyment and a sense of curiosity.
- Knowledge and skills that are interconnected and transferable.
- Flexible and adaptive approaches.
- Learners that are fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics.
- Conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
- Positive ‘can do’ attitudes.
- Identifying relationships and making connections between learning they have already acquired and any new concepts.
- Secure and deep understanding.
- Masters of the content.
- All children to have success.
Our school follows a mastery approach to teaching mathematics where the whole class moves through topics at broadly the same pace. We spend longer on key mathematical topics and concepts to give all learners both the practice and depth of understanding that they need. We believe that all children can access and understand the full mathematics curriculum. Mastering mathematics means learners of all ages acquiring a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. We want all of our children to have the ability to reason mathematically, have an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
Mastering Number
At Wouldham All Saints, we follow the Mastering Number programme to ensure all children develop strong number sense and confidence with early arithmetic. This programme is used from Early Years through to Year 3, with each phase building securely on the one before it. In Reception (EYFS), children have a 10 minute adult directed Mastering Number session, as well as having access to various continuous provision maths activities throughout the week. In KS1 and Year 3 children have a 10-15 Mastering Number session in addition to their Power Maths lesson. Over the year, the children will experience using a range of resources and representations, including a rekenrek, which is a counting frame, similar to an abacus. It has ten beads on each row, five white and five red which supports the development of number sense.
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
In the children’s first year at Wouldham, we use the Mastering Number programme, which teaches a deep understanding of quantity and of numbers to 10. The children have a daily, whole class maths lesson and use child-initiated time (Time to Explore) to embed key concepts in the six main areas that underpin early mathematical learning, which provide the firm foundations for the maths that children will encounter as they move up through the school: Cardinality and Counting; Comparison; Composition; Pattern; Shape and Space; and Measures. In EYFS, Mastering Number focuses on giving children a deep, practical understanding of number. Through carefully structured activities, children learn to:
- Subitise (recognise small quantities without counting)
- Compare quantities
- Understand the composition of numbers
- Build early patterns and relationships
- Develop strong foundations for counting and early calculation
Sessions are highly interactive, using real objects and visual patterns to help children see and feel the structure of number. These early experiences ensure children enter Year 1 with the confidence to reason about numbers, not just recite them.
Key Stage 1 (Years 1 & 2)
In KS1, Mastering Number strengthens children’s understanding of key number facts and relationships to support fluency. The short, daily sessions focus on:
- Number bonds within 10 and 20
- Understanding doubles and near doubles
- Counting strategies and patterns
- Flexible addition and subtraction strategies
- Developing strong mental calculation skills
Children continue to use concrete resources like rekenreks and visual representations to deepen their understanding before moving to more abstract thinking. Daily practice allows children to recall facts quickly and apply them confidently in their wider maths lessons.
Year 3
In Year 3, Mastering Number reinforces key number concepts. Children consolidate their understanding of number relationships, place value, and calculation strategies.
Power Maths
At Wouldham, we use Power Maths in Key Stage 1 and 2 as a basis of our maths lessons. This is a mastery approach, that works for every child. It has been recommended by the Department of Education, to ensure that the aims of the National Curriculum are met. At the heart of Power Maths is the belief that all children can achieve.
Within the Power Maths scheme each lesson has a progression, with a central flow that draws the main learning into focus. There are different elements, informed by research into best practice in maths teaching, that bring the lessons to life.
The Power Maths teaching model:
The curriculum is broken down into core concepts, taught in units e.g. addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, shape, statistics etc.
Each unit is then divided into small learning steps – lessons.
Each lesson is sequenced in the same format:
Power Up – Discover – Share – Think Together – Practice – Reflect
Power Up – We begin each maths lesson with a ‘Power Up’ activity designed to support fluency in all key number facts (this is sometimes substituted with a Tough Ten activity). Power Ups reinforce the two key things that are essential for success: times tables and number bonds.
Discover – each lesson begins with a problem to solve, often a real-life example, sometimes a puzzle or a game. These are engaging and fun and designed to get all children thinking.
Share – the class shares their ideas and compares different ways to solve the problem, explaining their reasoning with hands-on resources and drawings to make their ideas clear. Children are able to develop their understanding of the concept with input from the teacher.
Think together – the next part of the lesson is a journey through the concept, digging deeper and deeper so that each child builds on secure foundations while being challenged to apply their understanding in different ways and with increasing independence.
Practice – now children practice individually or in small groups, rehearsing and developing their skills to build fluency, understanding of the concept and confidence.
Reflect – finally, children are prompted to reflect on and record their learning from each session and show how they have grasped the concept explored in the lesson.
Children are encouraged to use concrete manipulatives, enabling them to understand what they are doing rather than learning abstract ideas. This hands-on approach provides learning strategies for all children including those with SEND. Lesson plans are adapted to ensure equality of access to all children. For children with special educational needs, tasks may be broken down into small steps, giving children appropriate and achievable goals, with activities which reinforce the children’s understanding of content covered previously; in this way all children will be enabled to achieve their full potential. We ensure that sufficient challenge is provided within lessons through rich and sophisticated problem-solving and reasoning tasks, rather than acceleration through new content.
At Wouldham, through the planning and teaching of mathematics, for which we use the scheme PowerMaths, we can:
- Support children to develop and retain mathematical knowledge, concepts and procedures appropriate to their starting points, ensuring they are prepared for the next stage of learning, whether that is the next lesson, unit of work, year group or key stage.
- Provide a carefully sequenced mathematics curriculum that builds knowledge, concepts and skills systematically over time, while helping children make connections between different mathematical ideas and representations.
- Provide opportunities for mathematical reasoning and problem-solving that enable children to make meaningful connections between mathematical ideas and apply their learning to practical problems they may encounter in everyday and adult life.
- Develop children’s fluency in recalling key number facts through regular opportunities to revisit and practise mathematical concepts and knowledge each week, term and year.
- Promote enjoyment and confidence in mathematics by providing opportunities for children to experience success, recognise their progress and develop increasing confidence in their mathematical abilities.