Mathematics at St Helen's
"Maths is essential to everyday life. A high quality mathematics education 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.” (National Curriculum, 2014)
At St Helen’s Catholic Primary School, we teach 45 minutes to one hour of maths daily and aim for all of our children to be fluent, confident and passionate mathematicians. We want them to develop their skills, understanding and fascination for maths throughout their time at school and be able to apply their knowledge accurately in the future.
We use the White Rose Maths Scheme of Learning across the school for progression and mastery whilst guaranteeing the curriculum objectives are delivered. Through this scheme, our lessons are characterised by a CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach. Within this approach we use a range of appropriate manipulatives to support understanding and to allow children access to deeper understanding. The progression through the number operations is detailed in our school’s Calculation Policy. In the juniors we also use the Busy Ants Maths Ants Maths scheme, where appropriate to further support, reinforce and consolidate learning.
We are committed to a rich maths curriculum, which focuses on children’s conceptual understanding. We see mathematical understanding as an interconnected network where children draw links between concepts. In order for children to develop an interconnected network, at St Helen’s we use conceptual variation to look at the same idea through a number of different representations, at a number of different levels.
We nurture in children an appreciation of when a task should be calculated mentally and when a written method should be used. At St Helen’s, children are encouraged to discuss their methods, using the appropriate mathematical language, and identify the most suitable approach for the task, checking their answers by using the inverse operations.
We aim to deepen understanding through problem solving and reasoning. Children are taught to think clearly and logically with persistence, growing independence and confidence.
Across the school, we want all children to have an enthusiasm and enjoyment for maths. We use Times Tables Rockstars to support the children with recall of multiplication and division facts in an interactive way. We also use Mathletics to support the children’s learning at home. Through these programs, children are encouraged to participate in worldwide competitions and consolidate their learning at home, with the chance to win awards!
At St Helen’s Catholic Primary School, we grow awareness that maths is not only an interesting and valuable subject, but it is also fun!
click on pictures for Home Learning Links
If you have forgotten your username and password to log in to Mathematics or Times Tables Rock Stars, please let your teacher know and they will give you a new one!
Family Maths Toolkit
The Family Maths Toolkit is full of ideas to help parents, families and children at primary level enjoy everyday maths activities together.The site also offers resources to help teachers support family engagement with children's maths learning.
To access the link to the Family Maths Toolkit, click on to the picture below:
Top tips from the "Family Maths Toolkit" for parents and families:
Be positive about maths. Don't say things like "I can’t do maths" or "I hated maths at school"; your child might start to think like that themselves.
Point out the maths in everyday life. Include your child in activities involving maths such as using money, cooking and travelling.
Praise your child for effort rather than talent - this shows them that by working hard they can always improve.
If you struggle with maths yourself - try this free online tool the National Numeracy Challenge to improve your maths level.