JUNIOR CURRICULUM – MATHS

At Cunningham Hill, we believe Maths is important in everyday life and, with this is mind, we provide children with multiple opportunities to develop an ability to solve problems, reason, think logically and work systematically. As a school, we hope to stimulate and motivate the children to look beyond Maths in the classroom, by offering a selection of Maths days and weeks, enrichment opportunities, competitions, extra-curricular clubs and regular community links between other schools and pupils. By ensuring Maths has a high-profile within the school, pupils have the opportunity to develop a sense of curiosity about the subject with a clear understanding.

At Cunningham Hill, we use the ‘Herts Essentials Maths’ programme of study for progression, supplemented with opportunities for deeper reasoning through investigations and open ended tasks. We implement a concrete-pictorial-abstract approach to learning Maths, which gives the children a deeper understanding of the various concepts taught. The children are encouraged to use a range of manipulatives to deeper their understanding. Assessment For Learning (AFL) is used at the start of each lesson to ensure that the children begin their learning from the appropriate point, with self-start tasks available for those who already have a good grasp of the age-related standard. Children are encouraged to self-assess and progress their own learning, through the use of a medal progression system and ’Check-it’ stations to self-mark and correct misconceptions. ‘Mastery Checkpoints’ and other problem solving tasks are built into our planning to develop children’s conceptual understanding, enabling them to apply their skills to different problems.

At the end of each unit of work, if necessary, ‘Buffer Zones’ are used to allow time for further input for those who have not quite grasped the concepts taught, while allowing others to broaden their learning through problem solving tasks. Regular feedback sessions are also implemented within the curriculum to allow children to consolidate learning, re-practice methods or to address misconceptions. We practice mental arithmetic regularly and explicitly teach a range of strategies for calculation, with a focus on mental methods, jottings and formal written methods. Regular short fluency sessions are held to enable the children to become flexible, efficient and accurate in all areas of the Maths curriculum.