Our Maths Vision

At St Michael and St John’s RC Primary School, we believe that Maths is a gift from God that helps us explore, understand, and appreciate the beauty and order of His creation. Through the study of Maths, our children develop the skills to think logically, reason effectively, and solve problems creatively — skills that empower them to make a positive difference in the world.

We aim to foster a love of learning in Maths by providing engaging, challenging and meaningful experiences that promote curiosity, confidence and perseverance. Our teaching reflects Gospel values such as respect, integrity and collaboration; encouraging every child to recognise their God-given potential.

Through a growth mindset and a collaborative learning environment, we inspire our students to see Maths not only as a tool for everyday life, but as a way of thinking that reveals God’s order and purpose in creation.

How our Maths curriculum intent links with our School Vision and aims

Development of Maths skills at SSMJ RC Primary School is at the cornerstone of how pupils will be able to thrive as they grow into adulthood:

• In order for pupils to look after themselves and financially flourish as they live their lives, it is critical that pupils develop secure number and problem solving skills. Reasoning will help pupils make informed decisions related to their lives and future careers. It helps pupils to critically understand and assess issues surrounding mercy, equality and justice and make fair decisions to combat inequalities and injustices they identify.
• An effective Maths curriculum at SSMJ allows pupils to develop their resilience as learners and problem solvers, allowing them to ambitiously reach their potential.
• The ability to creatively solve problems and reason about Maths allows the children to development their sense of wonder and spirituality.
• Maths allows pupils to understand God’s work in action, allowing them to see how the world works.
• Each child has their own unique talents gifted by God; therefore, we strive to create a broad, creative, critical and inspirational Maths curriculum, so that our children flourish no matter what their background or ability.
• By ensuring our children are given a broad and inspirational Maths curriculum, appropriate to the modern world, we are not only enhancing their ability academically, but also spiritually.

At SSMJ, we intend:

• To develop a life-long love of maths - to value the subject and understand its importance in everyday life.
• To develop a ‘can do’ attitude, especially when reasoning and problem solving. To demonstrate resilience working both independently and collaboratively.
• To have confidence to express ideas fluently and reason using correct mathematical language.
• To broaden children’s knowledge and understanding of how mathematics is use in the wider world by making rich and varied real life connections.
• To improve our mathematical vocabulary and oracy skills to explain and deepen our answers so we are able to fully explain our reasoning and logic.

How skills progression is implemented in our Maths Curriculum

The school teaches the National Curriculum for Maths, which focuses on a Maths Mastery approach for the pupils so that they:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals 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;
• Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language;
• Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

In order to achieve the above aims and intent, SSMJ uses several different resources including White Rose Maths and NCETM Materials to provide the children with a coherent and logically sequenced curriculum that both supports and challenges pupils to be the best they can be. 

The Essence of Mathematics for Mastery

We also use ‘The Essence of Mathematics Teaching for Mastery’ from the NCETM.  The main principles of this are:

• Mathematics teaching for mastery assumes everyone can learn and enjoy mathematics.
• Mathematical learning behaviours are developed such that pupils focus and engage fully as learners who reason and seek to make connections.
• Teachers continually develop their specialist knowledge for teaching mathematics, working collaboratively to refine and improve their teaching.
• Curriculum design ensures a coherent and detailed sequence of essential content to support sustained progression over time.

In the classroom this would typically include:

• Pupils being taught through whole-class interactive teaching, enabling all to master the concepts necessary for the next part of the curriculum sequence.
• The teacher leading back-and-forth interactions, including questioning, short tasks, explanations, demonstrations, and discussions, enabling pupils to think, reason and apply their knowledge to solve problems.
• Use of precise mathematical language enabling all pupils to communicate their reasoning and thinking effectively.
• Pupils failing to grasp a concept or procedure being identified quickly, and gaps in understanding addressed systematically to prevent them falling behind.
• Significant time being spent developing a deep understanding of the key ideas that are needed to underpin future learning.
• Key number facts being learnt to automaticity, and other key mathematical facts being learned deeply and practised regularly, to avoid cognitive overload in working memory and enabling pupils to focus on new learning.