At William Austin Infant School our mission is to create a learning environment where all individuals shine. We understand the importance of nurturing and developing all children into confident mathematicians who are not afraid to take risks and self-reflect on their learning. We believe that Maths learning should be creative, engaging and enjoyable whilst also being challenging. We strive to ensure there is achievement for all children.

Building on their prior knowledge and experience, pupils at William Austin Infant School develop an awareness of the underlying patterns in number and shape which are a foundation for calculating methods, measurement and shape work in the future. The development of mathematical language and vocabulary is of fundamental importance.

In Early Years Foundation Stage (Reception) children are taught these key areas:

• Number - Counting and Cardinality
• Number - Comparison
• Number - Composition
• Pattern
• Measurement
• Geometry - Shape and Space.

In Key Stage One (Year 1 and 2) children are taught these key areas:

• Number - Number and Place Value
• Number - Addition and Subtraction
• Number - Multiplication and Division
• Number - Fractions
• Measurement
• Geometry - Properties of Shape
• Geometry - Position and Direction
• Statistics - (Year 2 only).
   

Here at William Austin Infant School, we have recently adopted a ’Teaching for Mastery Approach’ to support the teaching and learning of Mathematics. Our lessons incorporate a Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) approach in order to support children in mastering the National Curriculum objectives. We plan our lessons using guidance and resources from White Rose Maths, NCETM, and NRICH. In order to ensure children are ready to access different units of work we also currently use guidance from the Ready to Progress Criteria (RTP) to support teachers with their planning and teaching.

We focus on developing fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills in our children. We emphasise the importance of deepening the children’s understanding. This creates the opportunity for children to work together as a class progressing and developing skills altogether. We understand that all children learn in a variety of ways and at different paces, so further support is put in place by class staff in order to meet the needs of all learners. Children who are confident in their learning and have shown their understanding are challenged through additional tasks which encourage them to apply their learned skills in different contexts through problem-solving and reasoning style questions.

Below are some examples of work reflective of the Mastery approach.

We are focused on embedding a Mastery approach across our whole school. In the academic year 2020-2021, we joined a Teaching for Mastery Work Group supported by the NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics). This created an opportunity for us to be part of a Teacher Research Group working with other local schools. We have successfully completed the first year of this work group and have moved into the Embedding year in 2021-2022.