Mathematics at St Leonard's
At St Leonard's, we aim to make sure that by the time children leave us in year 4, they have developed a range of mathematical skills. They will be fluent in all aspects of the mathematics curriculum, and be able to reason and problem solve in a range of contexts.
To do this, in maths lessons, our pupils are exposed to a range of questions which develop these skills and show them in a range of different ways. This will ensure that children master concepts and can apply these in a range of real life contexts.
To do this, we have introduced three characters, which you will see in our classrooms and in our books. These skills are embedded into our teaching and children are expected to reason their answers and explain their methods and understanding in lessons.We have an expectation that all children will use the key mathematical vocabulary during every maths lesson.
To develop a firm understanding of concepts, we use a concrete, pictorial, abstract approach to ensure a deep level of understanding. As children explore and embed new concepts, they are exposed to concrete, pictorial and abstract representations alongside each each other. Children are given opportunities to practice and move between the different representations to find one which suits them best at their current stage of learning and understanding.
. This approach ensures that misconceptions are identified and addressed early on and children have a deep understanding of concepts, where they can make connections.
We aim to develop fluent mathematicians at St Leonard's and therefore believe that it is important to build in fluency practice into our day. In our school, this can be seen in the form of our fantastic 4, where children complete four fluency questions daily based on place value and calculation. In KS1, we have introduced the NCETM Mastering Number program to help pupils to secure and master number knowledge and facts to support their mathematical fluency and speed.
KS2 have multiplication fact fluency slots during the week where they explore the different times tables, learn their multiplication facts and become fluent in the recall of facts up to x12.
