Intent

At St Peter’s we promote a love of mathematics. We support children in exploring mathematical ideas and concepts to promote lifelong learning with number. We encourage the children to become confident and competent mathematicians who are able fluent working with number, are able to reason and solve problems within real life contexts.

 

Implementation

At St Peter's, we believe that a concrete, pictorial, abstract approach to delivering the mathematics curriculum is effective in promoting mastery and confident mathematicians.  Through exposure to objects, pictures, words, numbers and symbols, children are able to demonstrate mathematical ideas, enrich their learning experiences and as a result, deepen their mathematical understanding. Together, these elements help to secure life-long knowledge so that pupils fully understand what they’ve learnt and are able to apply their knowledge to a range of problems and in a range of real-life situations.

Concrete – Children use concrete objects and manipulatives to help them understand and explain what they are doing.

Pictorial – Children build upon this concrete approach by using pictorial representations which can be used to aid reasoning and problem solving.

Abstract – With a secure foundation of knowledge firmly in place, children can move on to an abstract approach suing numbers and key concepts with confidence.

 

This policy is linked to the White Rose Schemes of Learning, which is followed throughout the school and directly covers the National Curriculum for number and calculation.