Ravensthorpe

At Ravensthorpe Junior School, we see maths as a journey with all children having different starting points. Our intention is that children foster a love of mathematical learning, whatever their ability or starting place. We endeavour to ensure that all children become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics and are able to confidently use and apply mathematical concepts accurately and at speed across a variety of situations. We have a keen focus on the learning of multiplication and corresponding division facts, which is built into our curriculum through an additional daily 15-minute teaching session. We celebrate this learning through our whole school initiatives and rewards such as our Times Tables Rock Stars Postcards and half-termly TTRS Battles. When asked to describe maths at Ravensthorpe Junior School, our children used words such challenging, fun, exciting and important.

We use a mastery approach across school that provides us with consistency and progression. In years 3 and 4, mathematics is taught as a whole class using the same day intervention approach. This allowed teachers to provide immediate and effective intervention to those that require additional support. In years 5 and 6, children are taught in streamlined groups allowing teachers to use a range of teaching approaches effectively. The essential idea behind our mastery curriculum is that all children need a deep understanding of the mathematics they are learning so that:
• future mathematical learning is built on solid foundations which do not need to be re-taught.
• there is no need for separate catch-up programmes due to some children falling behind.
• children who, under other teaching approaches, can often fall a long way behind, are better able to keep up with their peers, so that gaps in attainment are narrowed whilst the attainment of all is raised.

Reasoning and problem solving is at the heart of our maths curriculum and is celebrated and embraced across our school. We have high expectations of all our children in terms of the mathematical vocabulary that they embed daily within their mathematical explanations through our ‘silver’ tasks. Our greater depth children are challenged using our ‘gold’ reasoning and problem solving tasks, which require a higher order level of thinking and explanation.

Mathematics Progression Map - Place Value

Each topic in mathematics is planned to ensure that learning progresses throughout the key stage, building on what the pupils learn at KS1. Below is an example of one of our Progression Maps. This shows you what your child will learn in Place Value in each year group.