• All of our pupils actively encouraged to choose and use effective and efficient working strategies and to be persistent and resilient learners.  All teaching staff promote and model such methods and behaviours. At key points within, and at the close of lessons, pupils are  given opportunities to reflect upon these key principles and the impact that they have had on their success.  
• Our system of assessment, ‘question level analysis’ and recording pupil progress informs our planning.  The attainment and progress of children is reviewed through regular and rigorous pupil progress meetings.
• Interventions across all year groups ensure that misconceptions are addressed quickly and children receive appropriate support with their mathematics.
• Our calculations policy is well established and embedded within our lesson sequences. It is applied consistently across the key stage and aligns with that of the local high school and our key feeder infant schools.
• Teachers model and pupils work through ‘concrete, pictorial, abstract’ approaches in order to allow individuals to harness, consolidate and internalise skills.
• Pupils actively and enthusiastically debate and discuss their mathematics and use/apply their understanding and skills to confidently, capably and independently tackle a wide variety of maths-based situations within many different contexts.
• All children participate in a daily arithmetic challenge and record their times and scores.
• Learning and recall of times tables happen daily.
• Teaching Assistants work alongside our young mathematicians and support their understanding appropriately. TAs are included in relevant training to ensure that they have good subject knowledge and up to date good practice.
• Learning is scaffolded, reinforced and extended through the use of carefully structured teaching and a wide variety of purposefully selected concrete and pictorial resources. Resources are readily available in classrooms, from which teachers can select and our young learners can independently choose in order to demonstrate and communicate their mathematical understanding and reasoning.
• A ‘Mathematics Working Wall’ within each classroom is updated frequently and referred to often to support current learning and celebrate the mathematical achievements of individual class members. Mathematical vocabulary is prominently displayed to be used by pupils.
• Quality presentation is promoted and praised. Expectations are clear and standards are monitored by the teacher.
• Our Year 6 pupils benefit from weekly after school (small group/teacher led) ‘Maths Busters’ (mentoring sessions). For the entire Spring Term Small focused tuition secures concepts and strategies and boosts confidence levels for our Year 6 mathematicians. 
• Mathematics has good cross-curricular links and resources are shared with staff to use in other lessons.
• Mathematics learning is reinforced with appropriate weekly homework tasks. ‘Times Table Rockstars’ use at home is expected. Certificates for individuals are awarded to celebrate achievements. Success is celebrated on our ‘Times Tables Rockstars’ display board.
• Weekly Times Tables Rockstars clubs are available for all children to attend. 

To ensure continuity and progression across the key stage we have invested in  ‘Power Maths’. This scheme is aligned with the National Curriculum and is a whole-class, textbook-based mastery resource that empowers every child to understand and succeed. It develops growth mindsets and encourages hard work, practice and a willingness to see mistakes as learning tools.

Power Maths...

• builds every concept in small, progressive steps
• is built with interactive, whole class teaching in mind
• provides the tools needed for growth mindsets
• helps the checking of understanding and ensures that every child is keeping up
• establishes core elements such as intelligent practice and reflection

Mastering Mathematics here at Kinsale Junior School means that our pupils are acquiring a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject which enables our learners to move on to more advanced material in a timely fashion.

There are five ‘elements’ to our Mastery Approach:

1. Coherence
   Our lessons are broken down into small, connected steps that gradually unfold the mathematical concept, providing access for all children and leading to a generalisation of this concept and the ability to apply it to a range of contexts.
2. Representation and Structure
   Concrete and pictorial representations are used liberally in our lessons to unlock and expose the mathematical concept being taught, the aim being that, ultimately, pupils can do the mathematics without recourse to the representations originally offered.
3. Mathematical Thinking
   In order to be understood deeply, taught mathematical ideas are worked on by our pupils, they are thought about, reasoned with and discussed with others. They are not merely passively received.
4. Fluency
   Our pupils quickly, efficiently and effectively recall facts and procedures and this allows them to flexibly move between different contexts and representations of mathematics.
5. Variation
   The teaching staff represent the mathematical concept (often in more than one way) to draw attention to fundamental critical episodes in order to develop a deep and holistic understanding. Furthermore, the sequencing of the episodes, activities and exercises used within a lesson and follow up practice, pay close attention to what is kept the same and what changes. Variation allows the mathematics to be connected and draws attention to inherent relationships and structure.

"A mathematical concept or skill has been mastered when, through exploration, clarification, practice and application over time, a person can represent it in multiple ways, has the mathematical language to be able to communicate related ideas, and can think mathematically with the concept so that they can independently apply it to a totally new problem in an unfamiliar situation."  (Drury, 2018).