Mathematics is taught daily across EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, following Power Maths that builds knowledge systematically over time. Power Maths is carefully mapped to ensure coherence and progression, with key concepts revisited through the Power Up daily starters.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), we relate the mathematical aspects of the children’s work to the Development Matters statements and the Early Learning Goals (ELG), as set out in the EYFS profile document. Mathematics development involves providing children with opportunities to practise and improve their skills in counting numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems, and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures.
Each lesson follows the same structure which ensures a consistency to our maths teaching. There are different elements, informed by research into best practice in maths teaching, that bring the lessons to life:
Power up – this is the starter which revisits previous concepts taught and ensures children are recalling known number facts.
Discover – each lesson begins with a problem to solve, often a real-life example, sometimes a puzzle or a game. These are engaging and fun, and designed to get all children thinking.
Share – the class shares their ideas and compares different ways to solve the problem, explaining their reasoning with hands-on resources and drawings to make their ideas clear. Children are able to develop their understanding of the concept with input from the teacher.
Think together – the next part of the lesson is a journey through the concept, digging deeper and deeper so that each child builds on secure foundations while being challenged to apply their understanding in different ways and with increasing independence.
Practice – now children practice individually or in small groups, rehearsing and developing their skills to build fluency, understanding of the concept and confidence.
Reflect – finally, children are prompted to reflect on and record their learning from each session and show how they have grasped the concept explored in the lesson.
At all stages, learning is structured using the concrete–pictorial–abstract (CPA) approach, ensuring that pupils develop a secure conceptual understanding before moving to more abstract representations. During lessons, teachers live mark and using this instant formative assessment they are able identify gaps and misconceptions which can be addressed during that same lesson.
Across both key stages, pupils regularly engage in fluency, reasoning, and problem-solving activities through the practice element of Power Maths. Reasoning and problem-solving is also developed further through the addition of the ‘I see reasoning’ resource. This gives children further opportunities to develop their reasoning and problem-solving skills as the questions require explanations and deeper thinking.