The Hever approach to mathematical learning

At Hever we aim to inspire all children to reach their full academic potential, enriching and deepening their understanding of all mathematical concepts, exploring and creating meanings through high quality teaching opportunities.

We have adopted a mastery approach to mathematical learning at Hever, where each embraces all areas of mathematical study; fluency, mathematical thinking, reasoning and problem solving. Our learners develop their mathematical curiosity and inquisitive mindsets through exploration, trialling and reasoning through purposeful learning tasks specifically designed to meet the needs of all of the learners.

We want our learners to be masters of mathematics, being able to:

• Think critically and communicate their understanding, using full sentences and accurate vocabulary;
• Apply their learning in different contexts across the curriculum;
• Hone their skills and the fluency of procedures whilst underpinning this with conceptual understanding and a growing self confidence;
• Enrich their learning through greater challenges.

At Hever, our mastery approach to Maths brings various approaches and techniques together in a rigorous and systematic structure emphasising and promoting a depth of learning with embedded reasoning. The programme emphasises cumulative mastery of the essential knowledge and skills of mathematics. It embeds a deep understanding of maths by employing a concrete, pictorial, abstract approach – using objects and pictures before numbers and symbols so that pupils understand what they are doing rather than just learning to repeat routines without grasping what is happening.

We have high expectations for every child and have problem solving at the heart of mathematical learning.

Our rationale for a mastery approach:

• Concrete learning allows discovery
• Pictorial allows conceptual understanding
• Abstract allows a shorter and more efficient way to represent numerical ideas using symbols.

Our planning at Hever promotes progression through these three phases providing masterful and astute mathematicians.

• We use the White Rose Maths scheme, devised by the National Centre of Excellence for Teaching Mathematics, to supplement and enrich the learning experiences for all of our students. White Rose Maths supports and embraces a mastery curriculum design, offering a depth to mathematical learning to stretch and challenge the curious mathematical minds of each child at Hever Church of England Primary School.
• We use the White Rose calculation policy to ensure parity with the White Rose teaching materials
• Each class uses manipulatives (physical, concrete maths resources) to embed the children's conceptual understanding.
• There is an emphasis on Maths fluency through the daily use of tools such as Fluent in 5, Big Maths Beat That, multiple choice diagnostic questions and the counting stick.