Mathematics Intent Statement

At New Milton Junior School, our mathematics curriculum reflects our whole-school vision and values, promoting high aspirations, resilience, responsibility and a love of learning. We strive to create a learning environment in which children can learn independently and collaboratively, develop confidence and curiosity and achieve success in mathematics both within school and in their everyday lives.

We believe mathematics is a vital life skill that underpins problem-solving, logical reasoning and critical thinking. Our curriculum is designed to nurture confident, capable and articulate mathematicians who enjoy mathematics, embrace challenge and persevere when faced with difficulty. Children are supported to develop enjoyment and curiosity for maths, enabling them to understand and make sense of the world around them through mathematical reasoning.

Our mathematics curriculum delivers the National Primary Curriculum and follows a mastery approach. This is underpinned by the principles of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM). Learning is carefully sequenced into small steps to ensure pupils develop deep, secure conceptual understanding before moving on. We follow the three aims of the National Curriculum: fluency, reasoning and problem solving, enabling pupils to apply their mathematical knowledge in a wide range of real-life and investigative contexts. Mental arithmetic is prioritised, with regular opportunities for pupils to use and apply mathematics in meaningful situations.

We use a Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract (CPA) approach alongside precise mathematical language and high-quality representations to support understanding. Oracy is central to our curriculum, with pupils encouraged to articulate their thinking, justify strategies and engage in purposeful mathematical discussion. Through effective planning, adaptive teaching and purposeful assessment, we aim to develop independent, resilient learners with positive attitudes towards mathematics and the skills and confidence needed for future learning.

Mathematics is taught daily. Lessons typically begin with whole-class teaching, where new concepts or skills are introduced through rich mathematical discussion, supported by high-quality concrete and visual representations. Guided practice follows, allowing pupils to work collaboratively, use concrete apparatus, share ideas and explain their thinking. This leads to independent practice, demonstrating secure fluency and confident application of skills.

Teaching and learning are inclusive and ambitious for all. The majority of pupils are expected to progress through the curriculum together, with depth of understanding prioritised over speed. Decisions about progression are based on pupils’ security of understanding and readiness to move on. Tasks are varied to meet the needs of all pupils, giving scaffolds where appropriate and ensuring challenge for all pupils. Rich, sophisticated reasoning and problem-solving opportunities are provided before any acceleration through new content. Misconceptions are clarified and gaps in learning addressed through ongoing AfL, timely feedback and intervention.

 

 

Mathematics Implementation Statement

 

At New Milton Junior School, mathematics is taught through a carefully sequenced, mastery-based curriculum that builds on prior learning and develops pupils’ fluency, reasoning and problem-solving skills in line with the Primary National Curriculum.

Mathematics lessons are planned using a structured approach that ensures clear progression of knowledge and skills across all year groups. Our curriculum is based on the framework and planning from the NCETM and is adapted to meet the needs of all our children.

Teachers follow a consistent lesson structure which includes:

• Assessment and retrieval of prior knowledge to identify starting points and secure key concepts
• Explicit teaching of new concepts using clear modelling, mathematical language, visual representations and concrete resources
• Guided practice where pupils apply new learning with teacher support.
• Independent practice to develop confidence and accuracy
• Opportunities for mathematical reasoning and problem solving to deepen understanding
• Check for understanding

 

Assessment

A key feature of our implementation is the use of assessment of prior knowledge to understand each child’s individual starting point. At the beginning of each unit and lesson sequence, teachers assess what pupils already know and can do through diagnostic activities, questioning and low-stakes assessments. This ensures teaching is precisely tailored, addresses misconceptions and gaps in learning and builds securely on existing understanding.

Regular assessment is also embedded within lessons through ongoing formative assessment. This ensures learning remains responsive to pupil needs and starting points, supports timely feedback and informs planning.

End of topic assessment and termly summative assessments are used to assess understanding and progress. This information is used to identify need, plan and provide further support.

Explicit teaching of mathematical concepts

New mathematical concepts are taught explicitly through clear teacher modelling and carefully structured explanations. Teachers use precise mathematical language and consistently model correct methods to support pupils’ understanding. Visual representations and concrete resources, such as manipulatives, are used to help pupils explore concepts, make connections and develop secure understanding before moving to more abstract recording. This approach ensures that pupils build strong conceptual foundations and are confident in applying new learning accurately and independently. Within lessons, teachers use high-quality questioning to challenge thinking, identify misconceptions and promote mathematical talk. Pupils regularly justify their methods and evaluate the efficiency of different strategies, fostering deeper understanding and critical thinking.

Oracy

Oracy plays a central role in our mathematics teaching. Pupils are encouraged to articulate their thinking, discuss strategies and explain their reasoning using precise mathematical vocabulary. Structured talk opportunities, partner discussions and whole-class dialogue support pupils in developing confidence, conceptual fluency, clarity and depth in their mathematical reasoning and communication. Each unit of work has specific vocabulary that is taught in order to support pupils in both thinking and speaking as a mathematician.

CPA

Concrete, pictorial and abstract approaches are used to support conceptual understanding. Manipulatives such as dienes, counters, place value charts and fraction tiles are used to enable pupils to visualise and explore mathematical concepts and abstract representations. Pictorial representations, for example bar models and part-whole models, are used to expose the mathematical structure behind concepts and problems. These help to bridge the gap between concrete objects and abstract numbers. Pupils are encouraged to draw models to deepen their own understanding and communicate this with others. 

Meeting Individual Needs

In order to meet individual needs, adaptive teaching strategies are used, including targeted support, scaffolded tasks and stretch challenges, ensuring all pupils can access learning and make sustained progress. Depth is prioritised over speed, and children are able to continually deepen their understanding through a variety of rich, sophisticated routine and non-routine problems. Timely interventions are implemented to address misconceptions and close gaps in understanding.

Interventions

Interventions are timely and targeted intervention to ensure that all pupils are supported to achieve well in mathematics and keep pace with the curriculum. Teachers use ongoing formative and summative assessment to identify gaps in understanding and misconceptions. Pupils who require additional support are quickly identified and provided with appropriate intervention, which may include same-day keep-up sessions, small-group teaching, pre-teaching of key concepts or individual support. Intervention sessions are designed to build confidence, reinforce key knowledge and enable pupils to re-engage successfully with whole-class learning.

Fluency

Fluency is a key part of every maths lesson. Separate fluency sessions are also taught regularly throughout the week, involving activities to rehearse key facts and methods, including number bonds, times tables, place value and mental and written strategies.  This supports all pupils to develop secure number sense, accuracy, speed and confidence, enabling them to access more complex problem-solving and reasoning tasks. Times tables are a key focus and each child has access to Times Tables Rock Stars, an online platform that is used in class and at home.

Reasoning

Reasoning is developed in each lesson through carefully chosen questions which give the pupils opportunities to discuss and explain methods and compare different approaches, require pupils to justify answers, prove statements or identify errors. Teachers model reasoning strategies, including making conjectures, spotting patterns, using examples and counter-examples and constructing logical arguments. Pupils are encouraged to articulate their thinking verbally before recording written explanations. By consistently embedding reasoning into teaching and learning, pupils develop confidence in communicating mathematically, deepen their conceptual understanding and become independent, critical thinkers. We use the NCETM Reasoning Progression Maps and other resources, including White Rose, to ensure that there are reasoning opportunities in each lesson.

Problem Solving

Problem solving is embedded within daily mathematics teaching to develop pupils’ ability to apply their mathematical knowledge confidently and independently. Teachers explicitly model problem-solving strategies, including identifying relevant information, choosing appropriate methods, for example, working backwards, representing problems using diagrams or models, and checking the ‘reasonableness’ of answers. Lessons regularly include a range of problem types, such as multi-step, real-life and open-ended tasks, to deepen understanding. Pupils are encouraged to work collaboratively, to discuss, prove and explain, before tackling problems independently. Pupils are taught to use the CPA approach to explore the structure of problems before recording solutions formally.

Retrieval

Retrieval is planned and spaced over time so that pupils revisit learning from earlier units and previous year groups, helping to build connections, reduce cognitive overload when new content is introduced and allow learning to be embedded in long-term memory. Teachers use assessment information from retrieval activities to identify gaps and misconceptions and adapt teaching accordingly. Through consistent and purposeful retrieval practice, pupils develop fluency, confidence and resilience, enabling them to apply their mathematical knowledge more effectively in reasoning and problem-solving tasks.

Marking and Feedback

Marking and feedback are used effectively to support pupils’ understanding, address misconceptions and move learning forward. Teachers provide timely and purposeful feedback during lessons through verbal guidance, targeted questioning and live marking. This allows misconceptions to be identified and addressed immediately and enables pupils to make improvements in real time. Written feedback is proportionate, meaningful and focused on key learning objectives. Pupils are given regular opportunities to respond to feedback, correct errors and deepen their understanding through dedicated improvement time. Assessment information gathered from marking is used to inform future planning, adapt teaching and identify pupils who may require additional support or challenge.

Digital Learning

Children have access to Times Tables Rock Stars and MyMaths as online learning platforms. These can be accessed in school and at home. Other websites are regularly used to support learning. Laptops and ipads are used throughout the school to allow children to practise skills and in Year 3 and Year 4, all children have access to an individual ipad in maths lessons through Showbie. This allows children to use digital manipulatives and representations to support their understanding.

Cross-curricular opportunities

Mathematics is meaningfully linked to other areas of the curriculum to strengthen understanding and demonstrate real-life application. Pupils use their mathematical skills in science when measuring, recording and analysing data, in geography when interpreting maps and statistics, and in history when working with timelines and historical information. Links are also made through design and technology, computing, art, music and physical education to reinforce concepts such as measurement, data handling, pattern, shape and number. These cross-curricular opportunities support pupils in transferring their mathematical knowledge to a range of contexts.

A Positive Maths Culture

We actively promote a positive attitude towards mathematics by celebrating pupils’ progress and achievements, by creating exciting opportunities to engage with the subject and encouraging children to challenge themselves and be resilient. This includes recognising success through assemblies, awards and certificates, as well as organising special maths-themed events such as Times Tables Rock Stars Day – ‘Get Ready to Rock’, ‘Maths Challenge’ days and school competitions.

Through this implementation, New Milton Junior School aims to develop confident, articulate and resilient mathematicians who demonstrate a deep understanding of mathematical concepts and can apply their knowledge effectively in a range of contexts.