Mathematics Rationale
At Holy Cross C of E Primary School, we believe that Maths is an essential life skill that is used throughout our daily lives.

Our teaching of Mathematics is based on the mastery approach – the belief that every child is capable of success. We aim to provide 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.

We know that Mathematics is important ,and we begin carefully building understanding of the basic concepts from day one in EYFS.  We follow a programme called ‘Mastering number’ which helps the children to understand the number system and counting in depth.  Real opportunities to use and explore the resources are provided and we use different ways of representing numbers to ensure the children have a good foundational understanding before they move on and build on their mathematical learning.

We intend for our children to be able to apply their mathematical knowledge across all the curriculum and within their daily lives, as Maths is intrinsic throughout all subjects. We want children to make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving problems.

We aim 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 have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems
•  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.

We believe our children will:

• acquire an enjoyment and love of Mathematics.
• develop positive attitudes to Numeracy and Mathematics.
• demonstrate and use their Mathematics confidently within their daily lives.
• understand that Mathematics is a powerful tool for communication.
• have an ability to solve problems, to reason, to think logically and to work systematically and accurately.
• make mathematical links with other areas of the curriculum and become aware of the uses of Mathematics in the wider world.
• develop personal qualities such as perseverance, independent thinking, cooperation and self-confidence.

At Holy Cross C of E Primary School teachers use the White Rose Maths Primary Schemes of Learning to plan, organise and deliver Mathematics to pupils from Year One to Year Six.  The school works closely with the Cambridge Maths Hub to access Professional Development and Continuous Professional Development to continue to improve and strengthen the teaching and learning in this subject using a mastery approach.  The teachers are also using the Ready to Progress criteria to ensure pupils catch up and keep up with their learning across units of work and close any gaps in knowledge.

We believe that the schemes of learning provided by White Rose Maths offers pupils a vocabulary rich and progressive curriculum in which children experience depth of understanding as well as knowledge and skills. 

Each lesson is structured to provide fluency, reasoning and problem-solving and there are options for additional challenges, group working and verbal reasoning.