Our Learning Sequence

Through our maths curriculum, we aim to:

• Provide a scheme of work that challenges all
• Inspire and excite all children in maths
• Create lifelong learners
• Allow children to be confident when talking about mathematics

At St Thomas Aquinas we have collaboratively developed a scheme of work that not only ensures a full coverage of the national curriculum but also encourages fluency and problem solving for all.

Our curriculum has been designed to challenge all students; allowing our learners to:

• explore mathematical concepts and techniques
• clarify meanings and methods
• practise techniques
• apply concepts and techniques to solve non-routine problems.

Our calculation policy follows the Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) approach to teaching mathematics.  This is a highly effective sequence which leads to a deep and sustainable understanding of maths in pupils.

At St Thomas Aquinas all year groups teach number and calculations in the autumn term. No other areas of the mathematics programme of study are covered during this period. This is to ensure these areas of the curriculum are embedded, with any specific gaps or misconceptions being identified as soon as possible.

How the curriculum is delivered

Over a period of five days the sequence of our maths lessons may vary from class to class. Teachers will teach a maths fluency lesson, three new learning or embedding lessons and an application of knowledge lesson. These can be taught in any order over a five day cycle.

Fluency lesson:  One lesson a week that focuses on fluency in maths by encouraging the children to be efficient, accurate and flexible in their approach to mathematical problems, investigations and mental maths tasks. Tasks that might be seen in this lesson could be timed tests, mathematical discussions, justify your idea task or select the best method and explain. 

Application lesson: One maths lesson a week is dedicated to problem solving questions, investigations or a creative task that develops the children’s mathematical thinking regardless of ability.

These lessons allow children to develop a growth mindset, encouraging risk-taking by rewarding the process rather than the final outcome. The children are given time for thinking as well as time for focused conversations about mathematics. Tasks that might be seen in these lessons could be; convince me cards, single step or multi step word problems, investigations that have more than one answer or a task that asks the children to justify, debate or recommend a mathematical concept / method and explain choice. 

New learning / embedding lesson: The other weekly lessons will focus on new learning or embedding previous maths skills and methods. During these lessons the class teacher will use questioning and differentiated tasks to support learning for all.