Mathematics at Sambourne
At Sambourne Primary School our maths curriculum is built upon an agreed progression of skills and knowledge from Reception to Year 6. Teachers use a variety of resources to ensure that the learning is matched to the needs of the class while maintaining age related expectations for all.
Our approach is to teach mathematics using small learning steps, building towards key learning objectives. This allows children to develop their mathematical knowledge and deepen their understanding. Our progression ladder shows how these small steps build up over the years that pupils spend with us and develop the mathematical understanding needed for them to become numeric and confident learners.
During every maths lesson, the children are exposed to a new small step of learning building towards the acquisition of key knowledge and skills. This is complemented with a variety of learning experiences that enable the children to practice and deepen their understanding in a variety of contexts such as through outdoor learning (Learning through Landscapes)
In the Foundation Stage, the children focus on number recognition and counting. The children learn how to join two groups together, count on and back and double and half numbers while using concrete resources and images. The children also explore maths in their environment, through simple patterns, shapes and measures.
In Key Stage One, children explore the number system with slightly larger numbers and are introduced to a wider range of mathematical vocabulary. By the end of Key Stage One, the children record their work in simple number sentences, have a range of informal approaches for addition and subtraction and are beginning to develop recall knowledge of some of the times tables by counting in twos, fives and tens. They also explore properties of shapes, measures and interpret pictograms.
In lower Key Stage Two, children broaden their understanding of the number system with increasingly bigger numbers and then with small ones in the form of fractions and decimals and eventually negative numbers. They apply their skills in a variety of ways to solve problems while becoming proficient in the use of formal written methods of calculation. Multiplication tables are practised regularly, in a variety of ways, and by the end of year four children are expected to have learnt and consolidated their multiplication tables up to 12 x 12 and associated division facts.
As children progress through upper KS2, they rehearse and apply their skills in a range of contexts, such as statistics, geometry and measures. They learn to calculate with fractions and decimals. Through this the children are exposed to a wide range of reasoning and problem solving questions and activities to enable them to understand mathematics as a problem solving and communication tool. They learn how to convert between fractions, decimals and percentages and apply this in real life contexts such as discounts and VAT. The year six curriculum supports transition to the secondary phase with units of work on ratio, proportion and algebra. This work draws on the children's understanding of mathematical concepts and processes, demonstrating that algebra is an extension of what they already know. This enables the children to confidently embrace the key stage three curriculum.
Mathematics Curriculum Overview
