Mathematics Teaching and Learning at St Joseph's 

At St Joseph’s, we recognise that mathematics is all around us and makes up part of the foundations of everyday life. Therefore, we believe that it is vital for children to be fully equipped with a variety of skills and the ability to adapt these skills to different situations.

From the Early Years Foundation Stage, we follow a mastery approach where children learn a concept in depth, moving through small progressive steps to develop a deep, lasting understanding and confidence. This is taught through a variety of fluency, reasoning and problem solving tasks. The idea is that all children begin in the same place and learn the same content. Those that are quicker at grasping a concept or skill will be pushed to think more mathematically and explore the ‘why’ of the concept, whereas additional support and scaffolding is given to those who take a little longer to grasp a learning objective. 

All year groups begin with place value which is vital to underpinning the number system, followed by calculation and other mathematics strands including measure, fractions and geometry. 

Across the school, the children complete daily recall tasks to develop their fluency in arithmetic and solidify their understanding of mathematical methods. This helps to build their resilience and confidence in their own abilities.

More information on what each year group covers, along with video tutorials, can be found on our Mathematics Methods website: