Mathematics - Boney Hay Primary Academy

At Boney Hay Primary Academy, we value Mathematics and we want our children to understand that Maths is essential to everyday life. We want children to grow up with a deep understanding of Mathematics and we recognise that Maths teaches us how to make sense of the world around us, whether it be calculating the total amount of money we need to purchase items or weighing precise amounts of ingredients when following a recipe. Maths helps us to develop problem solving and reasoning skills that allow us to solve a variety of problems.

From Reception to Year 6, we follow the White Rose Mathematics scheme. This aligns with the National Curriculum for Mathematics, which aims to ensure that all pupils:

Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and recall and apply knowledge
Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and using mathematical language
Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems

All children are encouraged to believe in their ability to master maths and are empowered to succeed through curiosity and resilience, while tackling the same concepts at the same time and progressing together as a whole class. The ‘small step approach’ used in the White Rose Scheme allows children to keep up not catch up as children are given the opportunity to build upon their prior knowledge. Each session includes questions designed to unpick the structure of the maths and deepen the children’s understanding. When children talk about maths concepts, they develop the vital mathematical language that helps them explain their ideas.

Through the White Rose scheme, we follow the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract) approach in Maths lessons, which is a highly effective approach to teaching that develops a deep and sustainable understanding of maths in pupils. This means that children are first introduced to new maths concepts using concrete materials, for example sharing out cubes to solve a division problem. This is then represented in pictorial form before being shown as an abstract number sentence.

In addition to our daily Maths lessons, each class from Reception to Year 6 hold a daily maths meeting in which they work on securing number facts. In Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 we follow the NCETM Mastering Number programme which exposes children to number facts in a variety of representations. By the end of year 2, we expect children to be fluent in their number facts within 20.

As children progress from KS1 into KS2, we focus on securing times table facts. We achieve this by introducing times tables through concrete and pictorial representations and practising counting using songs and chants daily. Children also take part in regular low stakes quizzes of their times table facts each week and access Times Table Rockstars to increase their speed of recall. The table below outlines our end of year expectations for each year group, showing the number fact and times table knowledge we expect our children to have at the end of each year.

In year 4, all pupils take part in the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC).

‘The Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) is a key stage 2 assessment to be taken by pupils at the end of year 4 (in June). The purpose of the MTC is to make sure the times table knowledge is at the expected level. The MTC is an online test where the pupils are asked 25 questions on times tables 2 to 12. For every question you have 6 seconds to answer and in between the questions there is a 3 second rest. Questions about the 6, 7, 8, 9, and 12 times table come up more often. The questions are generated randomly based on the rules of the MTC.‘ (Timestables.co.uk)

We encourage pupils to access Times Table Rockstars for 10-15 minutes daily at home to build their confidence in answering times table questions on a computer speedily.

Useful Documents

Download copies of our calculation policies as well as our yearly overviews from Reception to Year 6 to see what content is taught in each year group at each stage in the year. In addition to this, these videos from maths experts in our school demonstrate key methods used for the four operations.

Mathematics Policy

Calculation Policy - Addition & Subtraction

Calculation Policy - Multiplication & Division

Reception Curriculum Overview

Year 1 Curriculum Overview

Year 2 Curriculum Overview

Year 3 Curriculum Overview

Year 4 Curriculum Overview

Year 5 Curriculum Overview

Year 6 Curriculum Overview