Mathematics

Our Vision

Mrs Chapman – Deputy Head Teacher / Key Stage 1 Lead

Our mathematics curriculum empowers every child to become a confident, fluent, and curious mathematician. We believe that mathematical understanding is not only a foundation for academic success but a vital life skill that enables children to navigate the world with independence, creativity, and critical thinking.

We are committed to ensuring that all pupils develop secure fluency in number facts, calculation strategies, and key mathematical concepts. Through carefully sequenced teaching, regular practice, and meaningful retrieval opportunities, children build the automaticity that frees them to think deeply, reason clearly, and solve problems with confidence.

Mathematics comes alive when children see its value beyond the classroom. Our curriculum ensures that pupils can apply mathematics in real and relevant contexts, from handling money and interpreting data to measuring, estimating, and spotting patterns in the world around them. We want children to recognise mathematics as a practical toolkit which they can use to make sense of everyday situations and to make informed decisions.

We nurture a school culture where challenge is embraced and mistakes are seen as stepping stones to understanding. Children are encouraged to love the intellectual adventure of mathematics, exploring ideas, testing strategies, and persevering when problems feel demanding. Through rich tasks, open‑ended investigations, and opportunities to reason and justify, pupils develop resilience, curiosity, and a sense of pride in their mathematical thinking.

Every child is capable of success in mathematics. Our curriculum is designed to be inclusive, ambitious, and accessible, ensuring that all learners – regardless of starting point – experience success, feel valued, and develop a positive mathematical identity.

Ultimately, our vision is for children to leave primary school not only with strong mathematical knowledge but with the confidence, enthusiasm, and habits of mind that will support them throughout their education and into adult life. We aim to cultivate mathematicians who are fluent, flexible, and fearless – ready to tackle challenges, think critically, and appreciate the beauty and power of mathematics.

Mrs S. Chapman – Mathematics Lead

Purpose of study

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

A Mastery Approach

At Harlow Green Primary school, we embrace the aims of the National Curriculum: fluency, accuracy, precision, reasoning and problem solving. ‘Mastery’ approaches to teaching mathematics are used to ensure deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. We believe that mastery of mathematics is a tool for life and teachers reinforce an expectation that all pupils are capable of achieving high standards in mathematics.

Our Mastery approach is underpinned by the Five Big Ideas of Mastery which is outlined below.

Coherence

Lessons are broken down into small, connected steps that gradually unfold the concept, providing access for all children and leading to a generalisation of the concept and the ability to apply the concept to a range of contexts.

Representation and Structure

Representations used in lessons expose the mathematical structure being taught, the aim being that students can do the maths without recourse to the representation.

Mathematical Thinking

If taught ideas are to be understood deeply, they must not merely be passively received but must be worked on by the student: thought about, reasoned with and discussed with others.

Fluency

Quick and efficient recall of facts and procedures and the flexibility to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics.

Variation

Variation is twofold. It is firstly about how the teacher represents the concept being taught, often in more than one way, to draw attention to critical aspects, and to develop deep and holistic understanding. It is also about the sequencing of the episodes, activities and exercises used within a lesson and follow up practice, paying attention to what is kept the same and what changes, to connect the mathematics and draw attention to mathematical relationships and structure.

Aims

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.

The following programmes support number fluency:

reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Each year group has their own long term plan. The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through this at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.

We are a Mastering Number School, which aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children from Early Years through to KS2. The knowledge and application of addition and subtraction, as well as multiplication and division, forms the single most important aspect of the Mastering Number curriculum, and is the gateway to success at secondary school.

Useful Documents:

Mathematics Policy 2025-2027

Written Calculation Policy

Year 4 Multiplication Times Tables Check information for parents

Calculation Methods

Although we aim to support children to have the mental capacity to calculate with confidence and accuracy using mental methods, there comes a point when the numbers involved are too difficult and, consequently, require written methods.

To support children to calculate with the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), we have selected methods which the children can learn through a systematic approach and which develop over the time in KS1 and KS2.

We hope the videos will help provide guidance of how the methods are employed, especially for parents/carers who may wish to support their children at home.

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