At Rusthall St. Paul’s we want to foster a love for mathematics and to experience success in the subject. 

We want children to use and apply their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently to their everyday lives. We want children to make connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. 

At Rusthall St. Paul’s we use the Maths No Problem resources and approach.  It is aligned to the 2014 English National Curriculum for mathematics.  Teaching maths for mastery is a transformational approach to maths teaching, which stems from high performing Asian nations such as Singapore. When taught to master maths, children develop their mathematical fluency without resorting to rote learning and are able to solve non-routine maths problems without having to memorise procedures.

Communication is key as they work alongside peers to reason, explain and justify their thinking using mathematical vocabulary.  Misconceptions are addressed as they arise and teachers actively engage children in proving their ideas. During each lesson children use manipulatives as visual aids.  As they make progress in the lesson/sequence of lessons they move towards using pictorial and abstract representations for mathematical concepts.

We are confident that this mastery-based approach enthuses children about maths.

At our school, the majority of children will be taught the content from their year group only. The whole class works through the programme of study at the same pace with ample time on each topic before moving on.  Tasks and activities are designed to be easy for pupils to enter while still containing challenging components. For advanced learners, the textbooks also contain non-routine questions for pupils to develop their higher-order thinking skills.  We also use our own ‘finished tasks’ and higher-order thinking skills questions to stretch and challenge our higher attaining pupils.  The questions and examples are carefully varied by expert authors to encourage pupils to think about the maths. Rather than provide mechanical repetition, the examples are designed to deepen pupils’ understanding and reveal misconceptions.