Mathematics 

At Fern Hill our maths curriculum has been designed with the intention to develop the whole child and to inspire and instil a thirst for knowledge and an enduring love of learning in each and every child.

We have adopted a mastery approach to the teaching of mathematics. At the centre of this approach is the belief that all children have the potential to succeed and develop a positive outlook on maths in order to drive future ambitions. All children have access to the same curriculum content and opportunities to master the concept being taught through small steps. This enables our children to deepen their conceptual understanding by applying their skills to reasoning and problem solving.

Teaching for Mastery will focus on appropriate subject specific knowledge, skills and understanding that will allow all to excel by modelling our core values of inspiration, collaboration, empathy and excellence.

At Fern Hill we aim to do this by:

• Providing opportunities for children to embed the Fern Hill values in every lesson
• Instilling a love of maths through positive growth mindset
• Ensuring our children are confident with number, including fluency with mental calculations
• Creating problem solvers, who can reason and work systematically
• Giving a real life context to maths and for children to apply what they have learnt in school to the outside world

All children from the age of five are taught maths covered by the national curriculum; the content of which has been sequenced to ensure children acquire, master and connect long-lasting knowledge to solve challenging problems. 

Teaching for Mastery is broken down into 3 strands and defined as:

Fluency: A fundamental of mathematics, including 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.

Reasoning: The bridge between fluency and problem solving. The use of language to explain and justify their methods and choices allows children to use the former to accurately carry out the latter.

Problem Solving: Applying fluency to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

At Fern Hill, we believe Maths is an interconnected subject in which children move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. We ensure our children make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. As a result, our children will learn more, remember more and enjoy more. The way in which Teaching for Mastery allows this is by spending significant time developing deep knowledge of the key concepts. We aim to ensure the children have mastered a concept before new ones are introduced.

The way in which Teaching for Mastery is implemented at Fern Hill is by:

• Encouraging our children to make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop deep interconnected understanding.
• Those who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through rich and sophisticated problems rather than accelerated onto new content.
• New concepts are introduced by using the concrete, pictorial, abstract approach.
• Maths vocabulary forms part of every lesson and is used to develop our children’s knowledge.
• Every classroom has helpful, appropriate display materials with resources that can be easily accessed by the children supporting inclusivity for all.

Our quality teaching of maths knowledge, skills and vocabulary in all subjects, enables our children to be challenged and equipped with the skills needed to be  resilient, reflective and resourceful learners in future learning and in life. In maths, we provide opportunities for them to lead their own learning through progressive and challenging lesson sequences. We provide rich opportunities across the curriculum and particularly STEM subjects as we believe maths is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. Maths at Fern Hill is enriched through online learning platforms, trips, visitors and clubs to broaden and challenge children's interest and curiosity in the subject.

At Fern Hill we believe a high-quality maths education provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of maths, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.