‘Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.’
Albert Einstein

Mission Statement

Rooted in gospel values St Cecilia’s Catholic School Community lives together, learns together, loves together.

Our Maths Vision

In educating your child we are concerned with the development of the whole child in a stimulating environment in which, in keeping with our mission, we live, love and learn together.

In Mathematics, we aim for your child to progress in an atmosphere that encourages confidence and ‘real life’ skills. We follow a CPA approach (concrete, pictorial, abstract) across the whole school in line with our calculation policy.

Concrete – Children have the opportunity across the whole school to use concrete objects and manipulatives to help them understand and explain what they are doing.

Pictorial – Children then build on this concrete approach by using pictorial representations which can then be used to reason and solve problems.

Abstract – With the foundations firmly laid, children can move to an abstract approach using numbers and key concepts with confidence.

Across the whole school, but particularly in EYFS and KS1, the children are encouraged to physically represent mathematical concepts. Objects and pictures are used to demonstrate and visualise abstract ideas, alongside numbers and symbols.

We aim to ensure that every child has a firm understanding of the four rules of number and can solve mathematical problems. Maths in our school is taught through a daily maths lesson as well as additional basic skills sessions. Activities that take place in the classroom, out of school on visits and with visitors in school will always link to real life wherever possible.

We believe that following the ’Mastery‘ approach, children should develop at a pace appropriate to the individual and that different needs and abilities should be met. Our vision is for every child to reach his/her full potential, to be challenged and to foster curiosity and analytical thinking so that they develop their resilience when dealing with mathematical problems. Where possible, work is planned to ensure that all opportunities for cross-curricular understanding are utilised.

Each class uses a mixture of class, group and individual teaching as appropriate to provide diverse, quality experiences. Mathematics at our school will be challenging. We aim to engender a love of learning so that maths will be seen as fun and equipping your child to prepare them to become global citizens of the world.

What is Power Maths?

Power Maths is a resource that has been designed for UK schools based on research and extensive experience of teaching and learning around the world and here in the UK. It has been designed to support and challenge all pupils, and is built on the belief that EVERYONE can learn maths successfully.

How does this support our approach to teaching?

The philosophy behind Power Maths is that being successful in maths is not just about rote-learning procedures and methods, but is instead about problem solving, thinking and discussing. Many people feel they were taught maths in a way that was about memorising formulas and calculation methods, then having to apply them without any real understanding of what or how these methods actually work. Power Maths includes practice questions to help children develop fluent recall and develop their conceptual understanding. Power Maths uses ‘Learning Power’ characters to prompt, encourage and question children. They spark curiosity, engage reasoning, secure understanding and deepen learning for all.

Meet the Power Maths Characters and find out about their Learning Powers:

Curious Ash: is eager, interested and creative. He likes to imagine real life situations when solving problems and revise different areas of Maths so they are fresh in his mind.

Flexible Flo: During Maths lessons Flo likes to persevere and look for many different ways to solve problems. When planning her work, she likes to think carefully to ensure that she uses the most effective strategy to solve the problem.

Brave Astrid: Astrid’s favourite lesson is Maths. She is brave and likes to listen carefully to other people’s opinions. When she is given a challenge she becomes absorbed in it and perseveres until she succeeds.

Determined Dexter: Dexter loves numbers. She likes to use questioning to deepen her understanding. She likes to collaborate with her peers as she doesn’t always choose the most efficient method.

How will the lessons work?

Each lesson has a progression, with a central flow that draws the main learning into focus. There are different elements, informed by research into best practice in maths teaching, that bring the lessons to life:

• 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.

What if my child needs a confidence boost, or wants to be challenged further?

Power Maths is based on a ‘small-steps’ approach, sometimes called a mastery approach. This means that the concepts are broken down so that your child can master one idea without feeling over-whelmed. There are a range of fluency, reasoning and problem solving questions in each lesson that are designed to support the different needs and confidence levels within a class, while at the same time fostering a spirit of working and learning together. Each lesson includes a challenge question for those children who can delve deeper into a concept.

Information for Parents Y4 Multiplication Tables Check

Pupil Voice

Updated 24.11.2022

We are Mathematicians at St Cecilia's Catholic Junior School. Here is what we have to say about Maths:

Year 3

Lilah - 'I love maths because we get solve problems and equations'.

Alex - 'Maths is so fun, I always love doing maths in school and at home'

Lily - 'We solve a power up challenge at the start of every lesson, then Miss tells us what we are going to do during the lesson and writes more questions on the board for us'

Ryan - 'I didn’t know what the word minus meant before year 3 -  it means it taking away'. 

Lily: 'Exchange – Means when you knock next door when you haven’t enough to take away a number from another e.g. 6-7. You take one from the next column and end up with 16-7= 9'.

Savannah - 'When finding 1, 10, or 100 more or less – we can use base 10 or counters to help us work out the questions'.

Alex: 'We have been learning addition and subtraction column. We have also been making connections and links with what we know'.

Lily - 'If I need to explain something - I would use my whiteboard and draw out a number line to show them how to estimate – which means to take sensible guess – and draw lines to the place where the number would go'. 

Year 4

Miles - 'Maths is great!'

Nancy -  'Maths is fun because you can do it in so many different ways and learn new things'. 

Rozalia - 'Lessons are fun and not boring, I really like the deepen activities - they make me think!'.

Alyssa - 'I enjoy everything in maths, we learn new things all the time'.

Temilade -  ' I find some challenges hard, so I worked with my partner to solve them,  we got it right in the end it was tough because if  was multiples of 1000 and their equivalents'. 

Archie - 'I know what partitioned means – You can partition numbers into hundreds, tens and ones, or if it was 100, you would partition into thousands, hundreds, tens and ones'.

Nancy - 'I no know that area is the space inside of a shape'.

Maddox - 'I ask my teacher for help if I get stuck, talk to my partner and then if a few of us needed help, we would go through it in a group. It makes it easier'. 

Miles: 'My teacher writes new words on the board and explains them to us, we also sing songs to help us remember' 

Rozalia - 'I really like all the visual representations we use – they really help me see what maths we are learning'. 

Year 5

Jude - 'I really like it, Maths is very organised'.

Ellis - 'Its my favorite subjects – I just love it'

Darcie - 'I find it calm and relaxing'.  

Jasmine - 'We have to use our brain a lot, it is quite challenging especially the new things we are learning'. 

Jude - 'We use maths in so much, Geography – coordinates, History – timelines, Science – units of measure when doing an experiment. Computing – when on code studio'. 

Ellis - 'Some challenges and power puzzles are very hard – there were so many ways of working it out because you have to follow the rules but I love them'.

Jasmine - 'We use 3 before me, ask my friends on my tables before asking for help from my teacher'.

Year 6

Louis - 'I like the challenges because it gets me to think'.

Stevie - 'I love maths - I find it easy but sometimes the challenges are tough' 

Nidaa - 'I like learning new things because it makes me feel smarter'.

Hallie - 'Maths is my favourite!'

Patrick- 'Every lesson we start with either a power up or a quick recap, we then go through the new learning for the lesson - it is really helpful'.

Stevie -  'Rules of divisibility was a good lesson, I didn’t know before then, it makes it easier now we know them'. 

Louis - 'My teacher tell us what words mean, makes us understand them by describing them and putting them on the wall display'.

We are Mathematicians