Maths

At St Martin’s, we believe that mathematics empowers every child to make sense of the world around them. It allows children to notice patterns, solve problems and approach challenges with confidence and curiosity. Through rich tasks, hands‑on experiences and purposeful practice, children learn to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, developing the secure understanding they need to use their knowledge rapidly and accurately.

We teach maths through a mastery approach that ensures every child develops a deep, secure and connected understanding of mathematical concepts. Our teaching is underpinned by the Five Big Ideas, which are explained below.

1. Mathematical thinking – this encourages children to make connections, explore ideas, explain their thinking, use their knowledge to solve problems and to think more deeply about what they have been learning.
2. Fluency – this is built through meaningful, daily practice and confident recall. It encourages children to use what they know and to be efficient with their strategies. We have a clear fluency progression pathway mapped out from EYFS to year 6. This can be viewed below. 
3. Variation – this helps children to recognise patterns and understand concepts in different contexts.
4. Representation and structure – this enables children to use visual and concrete models to deepen their understanding and to explain their thinking.
5. Coherence – this ensures that learning progresses in carefully planned small steps.

This approach supports all pupils in becoming confident, flexible and successful mathematicians.

At St Martin’s, maths is taught daily, following the White Rose planning framework. This ensures rigorous coverage of all areas of the curriculum and allows children to both develop the fundamentals of maths and to practise applying learnt skills to a range of problems. Teachers use White Rose as a guide to their planning, adapting it to ensure that lessons are pitched and matched to the needs of their class. At St Martin's, we pride ourselves on being able to break learning down into small, managable steps, to make sure that children have the chance to fully understand and practise a mathematical context. 

In EYFS and KS1, children engage in mastering number sessions, which are designed to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children. The aim over time is that children will leave KS1 with fluency in calculation, a confidence and flexibility with number and the firm foundations needed for later work in maths. Here is a video explaining more about mastering number - https://vimeo.com/718208696.

By the time they leave St Martin’s, pupils will be resilient and thoughtful problem-solvers. They learn to apply their mathematics to a wide range of routine and non‑routine problems, breaking challenges into smaller steps and persevering when solutions are not immediately obvious. Our aim is for every child to move on with a positive sense of themselves as mathematicians—confident, capable and ready to use mathematics to navigate and understand the world around them.