Maths subject information
At Thorpepark Academy, we believe that maths is essential to everyday life and provides a foundation for understanding the world. We want to ignite a sense of curiosity of maths in our children and ensure that they enjoy the subject.
Our aim in maths is to ensure that the children become fluent in the fundamentals, can reason mathematically, and can solve problems by applying their learning to varied situations with confidence.
We want our children to see that maths is an interconnected subject, to make connections across the different areas to develop their fluency. The idea is introduced in the Foundation Stage, developed through work in Years 1-5 and embedded in Year 6. At the same time, we unlock a passion for the subject, motivating the children to learn; encourage the children to believe that they can and will achieve in maths; and produce lifelong learners of the subject.
Thorpepark Academy is White Rose Maths school, and the White Rose scheme is used in lessons from nursery through to Year 6. White Rose Maths, often abbreviated as WRM, is a comprehensive and adaptable mathematics curriculum and teaching approach. At its core, White Rose Maths seeks to foster a deep and lasting understanding of mathematical concepts among students. It does this by providing a structured and coherent progression of mathematical concepts and skills, ensuring that students build a strong foundation before moving on to more complex topics. The curriculum is organized into small, manageable steps, making it accessible to students of all abilities. This enables our children at Thorpepark to deepen and embed their learning before moving onto the next topic in the sequence.
One major mathematical skill, which has a big focus within the school, is learning times tables. Years 3-6 have daily taught times tables lessons which helps learn, embed and practice the quick recall of times table facts. To support this, we use Time Table Rockstars to help promote the fluency and practice of times tables. Annual rock star days are held to launch the year’s new leaderboard and multiplication checks are completed on a half termly basis to monitor progress.
During this academic year, to further develop our maths teaching and curriculum within the school, we have been successfully in obtaining a place on the National Foundation of Educational Research team which is supported the by Education Endowment Foundation. Our Year 2 classes will receive extra support and development in delivering a more mathematical reasoning-based curriculum. This will enable our staff to deliver CPD across the rest of the school to further develop our mathematics teaching.
