Maths Intent

At Fern House School our aim is for all pupils to acquire a secure and deep understanding of fundamental mathematical skills. In order to achieve this, pupils will be given the opportunity to engage in a curriculum that inspires mathematical thinking and fluency.

These fundamental skills form the basis of our curriculum intent and are referred to as the ‘sticky skills’. Our aim is for all pupils to move on to further education or the start of a new career with the ability to apply each of them proficiently.

The ‘sticky skills’ include the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) time and money. The importance and relevance of these key skills is made completely explicit by embedding each of them throughout the curriculum and in everyday school life. For example, pupils will be asked to tell the time at any point of the school day or they would be taught the value of money during a PSHE lesson.

In addition to this we aim to develop the pupils’ fluency and recall through daily mental maths activities as well develop reasoning and mathematical language by discussing a key question on a daily basis.

Furthermore, we intend to develop a greater depth of understanding, enabling confidence and a willingness to take risks by scaffolding learning through the use of manipulatives and pictorial representations to enhance the pupils understanding of abstract mathematical concepts.