Our Vision

At St Margaret’s CE Primary School, we believe every child is Created to Shine. In maths, we nurture each child’s talents and curiosity so they grow in confidence and understanding. Our curriculum is rooted in our values of Love and Aspire: love for learning and for one another, and the aspiration to reach their full potential. 

The intent of our Maths curriculum is to ensure that all children succeed, no matter their starting point. Through love, our classrooms are an enabling environment where every child feels supported and empowered to succeed in fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Through aspiration, not only do we ensure that learning is accessible for all, but we set high expectations and a culture where children know that they are capable of achieving high standards. 

As part of our commitment to excellence in mathematics teaching and learning, we play an active role in the wider maths education community. Our Maths Lead is a specialist for the NCETM Maths Hub, which enables us to develop strong partnerships with other schools. We regularly invite colleagues from other schools to visit, observe effective teaching in action and engage in professional dialogue. In line with our school vision of being a “town on a hill that cannot be hidden”, we are committed to continual professional development, serving our community and striving to be a beacon of excellence. 

Our Aims

Our maths curriculum aims to help pupils build knowledge, develop key skills, and find joy in learning. We encourage curiosity, creativity, and confidence so that every child can love learning and aspire to achieve their best.  

We have embedded the three aims of the National Curriculum in our teaching: fluency, reasoning and problem solving. We aim for all children to: 

• Become fluent and accurate with number facts and relationships, being able to recall facts with automaticity

•  Reason mathematically about their work, showing an ability to make connections and use accurate mathematical vocabulary

• Become resilient problem solvers who can work systematically, spot patterns and apply their knowledge in unfamiliar and real life contexts

How We Teach

Our curriculum is carefully sequenced from Early Years to Year 6 to ensure learning builds step by step. Lessons are practical, engaging and inclusive, allowing all pupils to access the subject and succeed. We focus on developing key vocabulary, understanding and meaningful application of knowledge.

• We use the NCETM CP materials to design our curriculum in a progressive manner.  See below for our curriculum overviews for each year group.

• At St Margaret's, we adopt and constantly implement a Teaching for Mastery approach. See below for our one-page overview of how this looks at our school. 

• Daily fluency sessions using the Mastering Number scheme. See below for the progression of skills document.

• We promote mathematical learning behaviours of noticing, predicting, making connections, building upon what we know, being resilient and checking our answers. 

The Difference It Makes

We know our curriculum is successful when pupils can talk confidently about their learning, show pride in their work, and demonstrate progress over time. Pupils enjoy maths and understand its importance in everyday life.

Concrete, pictorial, abstract enables children to visualise numbers and ‘see the maths’: “It’s helpful to use tens frames and pictures because this helps me to imagine what the numbers look like”- Year 3 child.

Weekly fluency assessment support us to track progress and have high aspirations for all children: “Seeing my child come home weekly, positive about their progress in Big Maths, Beat That makes me feel so proud! It inspires her to want to continue achieving and being the best mathematician she can be”- Year 4 parent.

A coherent learning journey consisting of small steps makes the learning accessible for all “The small stepping stones within a lesson are helpful. They seem to learn new concepts quickly”- Year 2 LSA

Stem sentences provide a scaffold for all children to talk about the maths: “I have never seen children able to articulate themselves and share their reasoning so confidently. We now hold such high standards for mathematical vocabulary and this has such an impact on their conceptual understanding”- Year 5 teacher 

Enrichment Opportunities

We enrich learning through experiences that bring Maths to life — such as trips, workshops, clubs and visitors. These opportunities help children love learning and aspire to new challenges.

• Rotary Club: A few members generously volunteer their time to support children’s mathematical development.

• Half termly celebration assemblies: We celebrate the achievements in Numbots, TTRS, Sumdog, our weekly fluency assessment and children who have been working like a mathematician.