The Intention

At Leyland Methodist Schools the intention is for our children to become confident, curious and captivated by number and shape. We have chosen a curriculum which focuses on key skills built on a foundation of concrete, practical number experiences embedded by progression through abstract concepts (written calculation and number work).

The Maths Curriculum

Early Years Foundation Stage

Our Early Years Foundation Stage is where the magic happens. This crucial first year of education is the foundation on which all other learning is built. When investigating number, we encourage a love of pattern, counting, colour, and investigation.

Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers. By providing frequent and varied opportunities to build and apply this understanding - such as using manipulatives, including small pebbles and tens frames for organising counting - children will develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built. In addition, it is important that the curriculum includes rich opportunities for children to develop their spatial reasoning skills across all areas of mathematics including shape, space and measures. It is important that children develop positive attitudes and interests in mathematics, look for patterns and relationships, spot connections, ‘have a go’, talk to adults and peers about what they notice and not be afraid to make mistakes.

Our EYFS teachers use the Lancashire Maths Planning tools to plan number work. The Lancashire plans go hand in hand with White Rose maths and compliment each other beautifully. 

The Inspire Programmes of Study provide the foundation of our maths Curriculum at Leyland Methodist Schools and underpins quality first teaching and learning. Using the programme as a baseline, we have also undertaken a thorough Curriculum Needs Analysis, studying the characteristics of our learners here in LMS to ensure that our curriculum meets their ever-changing needs.

Years 1-6

The White Rose programme (new for September 2021), provides diverse and motivating learning experiences in number, shape and geometry to work towards a challenging mastery curriculum. To complement this, we have a detailed Progression Document that maps out the key skills in learning throughout all aspects of mathematical learning and shows what these skills look like at each level from Year 1 through to Year 6. This progression document provides clarity for both teachers and learners alike – it signals clearly what the expected level of progress looks like at each Key Stage and therefore enables accurate assessments of children to be made.

Mathematical knowledge and understanding is further enhanced by the development of our STEM units. STEM incorporates maths, science, technology and engineering and allows our children to explore new mathematical concepts and consolidation of previously learned skills through practical, hands on challenges. 

Diversity

One of the key principles of Inspire maths is encouraging and promoting diversity for our learners. As we know from scientific research, female and male brains respond in different ways which has an impact on learning. Traditionally, boys tend to excel at maths and girls tend to find it trickier. White Rose provides an equal footing for ALL children to learn through manipulation and exploration of physical objects before moving on to pictoral representations and then applying their skills to abstract written methods.

Equality of Opportunity

Our maths curriculum was carefully chosen and is readily adapted to engage and encourage all of our learners.  Our long term and medium term plans map out the maths Key Skills and concepts and ensure that they are covered across all year groups thoroughly. White Rose maths is built on a problem-solving curriculum with mathematical reasoning at its core. Open-ended questions in White Rose maths support children in developing reasoning skills regardless of their starting points.

We are aware that our schools are diverse and ever-changing, as are the needs of our children. Similarly, we have ensured that year groups with particularly high levels of vulnerable children have benefitted from workshops and educational experiences.

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Parent/Carer Information and Resources