At Chestnuts, we teach a rich, balanced and progressive curriculum which encourages children to reason, problem solve and develop fluent conceptual understanding in each area of mathematics. We aim to create confident, resilient and enthusiastic mathematicians, who have a real love for maths. We foster a growth mindset attitude and believe that our abilities are neither fixed or innate and that every child can be ‘good’ at maths given sufficient time, support, resources and a ‘can do’ attitude. We use mistakes and misconceptions as an essential part of learning. 

The Mastery Approach 

We teach using a mastery approach, meaning we plan and structure our lessons so that children acquire a deep and secure understanding of each mathematical principle. We carefully build on previous knowledge and skills and teach children to see the relationships between numbers and other mathematical areas, to prevent a formulaic, procedural approach to maths. Our lessons contain fluency, variation, occasions to think mathematically and regular opportunities to spot patterns and make connections. Reasoning and problem-solving opportunities are provided in every lesson to enable children to make connections and see the skill they are learning in a variety of scenarios. We spend time teaching each area of maths in a block to allow for an in-depth understanding and sufficient time to practise, therefore securing learning. Key knowledge and skills are also revisited regularly allowing repetition to further embed learning.  

The expectation is that most children will progress through the maths curriculum at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when children are ready to progress are based on pupils’ understanding and their readiness for the next step in their learning. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly will be encouraged to challenge themselves through rich and sophisticated problems rather than any acceleration through new content. Those who are not yet confident with earlier material have opportunities to consolidate their understanding, including through additional practise, before moving on. Through this support we ensure that all children make progress. 

The CPA approach 

At the heart of our mastery teaching is the CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach. We explore mathematical concepts with a range of concrete resources to help children ‘feel’ the maths. The use of these concrete resources then supports the children to make links and use pictorial representations and jottings to further develop their understanding and really ‘see’ the maths. This kind of experiential learning helps to further commit to memory the principles taught in a lesson. As their knowledge of the mathematical concept becomes more secure, the children are then able to make links between the concrete and pictorial and apply it in an abstract form. 

Fluency Starters 

Retrieval practice is a key principle in ensuring good progress in any area of the curriculum. With this in mind, we include fluency starters (Flashback 4 and Fluent in 5) throughout the week in our lessons to help children build and embed the fundamentals. Alongside this, some year groups also teach a short weekly arithmetic session to recap and embed those key number and calculation skills in order to support the children’s progress in all areas of the maths curriculum. 

TT Rock Stars, NumBots and Arithmagicians

We believe that number facts are the fundamental basics of mathematics. They are the building blocks for many other skills and, without these, children struggle to fully embed and succeed in other areas of the maths curriculum.

To support this, all children in Reception and Year 1 are provided with a login to NumBots - an app which provides children with fun games to help them develop their number facts further. Children can earn coins to customise their virtual robots as they progress through the levels.

Towards the end of Year 1, children progress onto the TT Rock Stars app, which they continue to use throughout Years 2 to 4. This allows them to practise their multiplication and division facts in a fun, engaging way. Children can earn coins to customise their Rock Star as they develop their recall of their times tables.

In Years 5 and 6, the expectation is that children should be confident with their times tables, so a website called Arithmagicians is introduced. This allows children to develop their mental arithmetic skills in a range of areas and purchase real-life rewards with the coins they have earned. For those who may require a little more time to become secure with their times tables, this is still available on this website.

Certificates are awarded during assemblies for children who have shown great perseverance, earned the most coins or improved their accuracy the most across all of these programmes.

Mastering Number 

Mastering Number is a valuable part of learning across EYFS, KS1 and KS2, helping children build strong number sense through practical, engaging activities. These short sessions happen three or four times per week during the afternoons in addition to our morning maths lessons. In EYFS, the children explore numbers through hands on play, developing early counting skills and a deep understanding of patterns. KS1 classes build on this foundation with structured tasks that strengthen fluency, subtilising and confidence in manipulating numbers. In KS2, the children apply these skills further to more complex problems, using visual representations and reasoning to deepen their mathematical understanding. 

National Numeracy Day 

National Numeracy Day is a fantastic opportunity for our pupils to celebrate the importance of everyday maths. Throughout the day, children take part in engaging activities designed to build confidence with numbers, from practical problem-solving challenges to fun games that show how numeracy skills are used in real life. Parents are invited into school to have fun carrying out maths activities with their children. The enthusiasm across the school during this event is inspiring and it is wonderful to see children working together, growing their resilience and discovering that everyone can be great with number. 

Progression  

We understand the science of learning and how important it is for the children to revisit concepts before extending their knowledge. We use White Rose Maths and the structure of the mathematics curriculum across school shows clear progression in line with age related expectations. Below you will find an example of this progression across the school within the area of number and place value:

• Nursery - Focusing on counting up to 5, subitising (recognising quantities without counting) up to 3, and exploring 'more' or 'fewer' through play, rhymes and daily routines.
• Reception - Deepening understanding of numbers up to 10 and later exploring up to 20. Focusing on the composition of numbers (e.g. understanding that 5 is made of 3 and 2) and using 10-frames representation.
• Year 1 - Counting, sorting and representing numbers within 10 to being (autumn), moving to within 20 and 50 (spring) and up to 100 with partitioning (summer).
• Year 2 - Extending work to 2-digit numbers: recognising tens and ones, reading and writing numbers in words and comparing, partitioning and ordering up to 100.
• Year 3 - Introducing 3-digit numbers and learning about hundred, tens and ones, finding 10 or 100 more or less and comparing and ordering numbers up to 1,000.
• Year 4 - Focusing on 4-digit numbers, rounding to the nearest 10, 100 or 1000, negative numbers and Roman numerals up to 100.
• Year 5 - Covering numbers up to one million, powers of 10, rounding large numbers and negative numbers.
• Year 6 - Exploring numbers up to 10,000,000, determining the value of digits, reading and writing large numbers and advanced rounding and negative number contexts.

Throughout the school, our curriculum is designed to ensure that the children have the knowledge needed to feel empowered as they access the next phase in their learning journey. This, includes ensuring that the children develop the necessary knowledge and skills to equip them for their continued learning in Key Stage 3 where they will build upon their learning from Key Stage 2, making connections and solving increasingly sophisticated problems.