Our Vision
At Bluecoat Primary Academy we believe that everyone can learn and enjoy mathematics. We strive for all pupils to be curious, to make connections and reason to solve problems and understand the world.
Our curriculum is designed on the mastery approach to achieve this aim. Maths mastery at BPA is an approach to teaching which supports all learners to access age related curriculum requirements. Staff support children to explore concepts deeply to develop a secure understanding before progressing on to new concepts. Our mastery approach is an engaging and accessible style of mathematics teaching. This is inspired by the educational approach from Singapore and Shanghai, which is underpinned by the learning theories of Jean Piaget, Zoltan Diennes, Lev Vvgotsky, Richard Skemp and Jerome Bruner.
We use White Rose Maths, Maths No Problem and Power Maths to create a curriculum and teaching approach to enhance understanding and enjoyment, as well as raise attainment for every pupil.
Intent
At BPA we want all our children to:
- Succeed and make excellent progress from their starting points, with a majority of children meeting age related expectations, year on year.
To make good progress and meet age related expectations, children at BPA need:
- To learn key facts. Key facts such as times tables and number bonds are learned to automaticity to avoid cognitive overload in the working memory, enabling pupils to focus on new concepts. This supports our aim to ensure our children are fluent with number.
- To have a deep understanding of mathematical concepts and procedures. All pupils are given time to fully understand, explore and apply their ideas. Concrete, pictorial and abstract representations of concepts are used to help pupils to explore and develop their understanding.
- To have a sound understanding of mathematical vocabulary. Developing the way pupils speak and write about mathematics is key to developing strong understanding and reasoning skills. We expect pupils to explain their thinking and to explain why or how they know something to be true or false.
- To have a positive attitude towards Mathematics. Rejecting the notion that some pupils ‘just can’t do mathematics’ and encouraging pupils with the belief that through hard work, they can succeed. We instil and nurture traits of self-confidence, independence, initiative, resilience and cooperation when working on and solving mathematical problems.
For further information regarding our mathematics curriculum, please contact our Maths Leader, Mr Edwards.
For further information regarding our appraoch to mathematics at Bluecoat Primary Academy, please read our The BPA Way: Whole School Approach to Mathematics Framework and The BPA Way: Whole School Approach to Written Calculation Framework.
