Our Mathematics Vision

Our aim is for all children to think mathematically, enabling them to reason, solve problems and assess risk in a range of contexts.

At Holy Trinity Church School, our Mathematics Mastery curriculum has been developed to ensure every child can achieve excellence in mathematics. Children can experience a sense of awe and wonder as they solve a problem for the first time, discover different solutions and make links between different areas of mathematics. It provides pupils with a deep understanding of the subject through a concrete, pictorial and abstract approach. This ensures pupils fully understand what they are learning.

Simple Guide to Mathematics

Key Documents

Progression Grids:

At Holy Trinity, children study mathematics daily, covering a broad and balanced mathematics curriculum including elements of number, calculation, geometry, measures and statistics. Alongside daily maths sessions, an additional Times Tables lesson is taught for children in Year 3 and above.

Children from year 2 upwards will complete a ‘morning challenge’ that will focus on addition, subtraction, multplication, division and fractions. This supports the process of building fluency and precision in these areas. We focus not only on the mathematical methods, as seen in the calculation policy, but also focus on mathematical vocabulary.

The calculation policy and yearly overviews follow a mastery approach, using White Rose as a basis. At Holy Trinity, we all have the shared vision that every child has the potential to succeed. They should have access to the same curriculum content and, rather than being extended with new learning, they should deepen their conceptual understanding by tackling challenging and varied problems.

The teaching of mathematics follows the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract) approach as demonstrated in the calculation policy.

CONCRETE STEP OF THE CPA APPROACH:

Concrete is the “doing” stage. During this stage, pupils use concrete objects to model problems. The CPA approach brings concepts to life by allowing children to experience and handle physical (concrete) objects. With the CPA framework, every abstract concept is first introduced using physical, interactive concrete materials.

For example, if a problem involves adding pieces of fruit, children can first handle actual fruit. From there, they can progress to handling counters or cubes which represent the fruit.

Examples of Concrete Learning:

Reception:

Representing numbers and Measurement (Weight)

Year 2:

Place Value

Bonds to 20:

Money:

Year 4: 

Area

PICTORIAL STEP OF THE CPA APPROACH:

Pictorial is the “seeing” stage. Here, visual representations of concrete objects are used to model problems. This stage encourages children to make a mental connection between the physical object they have just handled and the abstract pictures, diagrams or models that represent the objects from the problem.

Building or drawing a model makes it easier for children to grasp difficult abstract concepts (for example, fractions). Simply put, it helps students visualise abstract problems and make them more accessible.

Examples of Pictorial Learning:

Year 1:

Year 2:

Year 3:

ABSTRACT STEP OF THE CPA APPROACH:

Abstract is the “symbolic” stage, where children use symbols to model problems. Students will not progress to this stage until they have demonstrated that they have a solid understanding of the concrete and pictorial stages of the problem. The abstract stage involves the teacher introducing concepts (for example, mathematical symbols). Children are introduced to the concept using only numbers, notation and mathematical symbols (for example, +, –, x) to indicate addition, subtraction or multiplication.

Examples of Abstract Learning:

Time Tables

Times Table Rockstar Day –  October

We had a great day celebrating Times Table Rockstar Day in school. We all dressed up as Rockstars and did a range of different activities depending on our age.

For example:

• Design our own rockstar
• Battle of the Bands against another class
• Battled against individuals
• Designed our own guitar
• Times Table Songs

Look how much fun we had:

Maths Day