Over the last couple of years, we have developed our maths programmes, lesson structure and delivery and this we year we are further developing this by changing the main resource we use to guide our teaching. We are now using the White Rose Maths scheme of learning as the base of our maths curriculum. Throughout the day children will have several opportunities to revisit learning from before as well as explore and practice new learning; below we have set out how this will work.

FlashBack FOUR (Children in year groups 1-6)

Each morning, when the children arrive in their classroom, they will be posed with 4 questions from previous learning. This will help the children to re-visit skills and knowledge they have acquired previously and practice those skills again.

Fluency Sessions (All year groups)

Each class will have a dedicated 15-minute session in the day where they focus on their maths fluency.

Early Years – Number Sense: The children will spend time chanting and singing songs, exploring the value of small numbers and looking at how numbers are formed.

Years 1-4 – Fluency Bee: The children will follow of programme of work which develops children understanding of number and its value. As the children go through the year groups this will develop into manipulating number leading to the Multiplication Check in Year 4.

Years 5-6 – Arithmetic: The children will be explicitly taught how to answer a range of arithmetic style questions every day. The children will also have the opportunity to answer questions of their own practising the skill they have learnt in their session.

Maths Lessons (All year groups)

Our maths lessons will now use the White Rose Maths resources as the base of the lesson content. Lessons will follow the following structure:

• Warm Up (Four questions based on the learning of the day)
• Anchor Task (A question for the children to think about and explore with their partner using malleable resources when appropriate). 
• New Learning (Teacher led instruction, teaching new concepts through modelling, questioning and example questions).
• Working Together (A small sample of questions which the children complete with a partner to practice the skill they have just learnt)
• Working Alone (A small sample of questions which the children complete on their own to practice the skill they have just learnt)
• True or False (A singular question posed to the question which they must determine is true or false – children will be required to reason their justification for this question regularly)

In all maths sessions throughout each day there will be opportunities for support and challenge when it is required. We have access to challenge cards, reasoning and problem-solving questions, pre-teaching materials amongst other resources. We will also be utilising resources from the NCETM (National Centre for the Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics) as well as other Teaching for Mastery resources.

As a school we utilise the Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract model to ensure that children are given the best possible chance to understand a new topic or skill.

We are very excited for this next stage of our maths development at St Francis and are looking forward to working with you to develop your children into the mathematicians they deserve to be.

Curriculum Overviews