At Chesterfield, our intention is to provide children with opportunities to develop their mathematical thinking to achieve confidence and competence in maths.  Our curriculum is designed so that it is accessible to all.  We want all our children to develop a love of maths, by guiding them to explore ideas, make observations and find connections.   We intend to provide opportunities to show students that Mathematical knowledge is important for solving everyday problems and challenges.  

We place a large emphasis on talk in maths, and constantly encourage children to explain their reasoning using mathematical vocabulary.  Our approach ensures the children are able to work independently and collaboratively, and are willing to take risks.  By the end of Key Stage 2, we intend to develop learners with inquisitive minds who have secure mathematical foundations.

In line with the aims of the national curriculum, we strive to ensure that our pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of maths; are able to reason mathematically and can solve problems by applying their mathematics.  Every maths lesson starts with times tables practise and an arithmetic activity to develop accuracy and fluency, allowing children to reinforce their understanding of key arithmetic aspects and store them in their long term memory.

We follow a Mastery Approach using the  NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Maths) mastery documents, NRich activities - providing rich mathematical tasks, Master the curriculum and White Rose resources.

To enable progression and challenge in each lesson, our teachers cover three areas:

• 
 Revision (I can still ...) to ensure learning is not forgotten
•  Arithmetic to develop fluency
• 
 Core 


The core activity is based on the learning objective.  Arithmetic is tightly linked to the core objective and develops the conceptual understanding.  

When teaching a new concept, this is introduced with the support of manipulatives and diagrams.  This enables our children to explain a new concept not just by showing how to but also by explaining what it is using the key vocabulary.  This Concrete, pictorial, abstract approach supports children in building on their existing knowledge by introducing abstract ideas in a more familiar way, therefore developing fluency of mathematical concepts.