Mathematics

Our Mathematics curriculum reflects the fact that Maths is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline which is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. Our high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically and a curiosity about the subject.

The curriculum will 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. It will also ensure that pupils are able to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language. They will be able to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. Our curriculum is organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils will make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They will also apply their mathematical knowledge to Science, Technology and other subjects. Confidence in mathematical skills is a precondition of success across the curriculum. Our Maths curriculum is organised and sequenced to provide continuity and progression so that key knowledge and skills are remembered and not merely encountered. It is designed to ensure that pupils consolidate and develop knowledge and skills year upon year. Skills and knowledge are learned and then revisited in later years in order to consolidate, develop, deepen and experience in new contexts.

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