Maths
Intent
We believe that children should have a deep understanding of maths and know how to apply it in different contexts. We want children to be able to use maths confidently in their every day life.
The National Curriculum for maths aims to ensure all pupils:
- Become fluent in the fundamentals of maths, including the varied and regular practice of increasingly complex problems over time.
- Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, understanding relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
- Solve problems by applying their maths to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, inclusing breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
Implementation
At Edgware we use White Rose, alongside progression documents from the National Centre of Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics and our school calculation policy. We ensure that we provide challenge through varied and high quality activities.
We believe in teaching knowledge and skills through a concrete, pictoral to abstract approach. We pre-assess children's knowledge and understanding before teaching a topic and then use this as a starting point to plan. We assess afterwards to see if they have understood and can apply their learning to new situations.
We provide children, where needed, with a range of resources to support their learning and understanding of a particular concept.
The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through knowledge and skills at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress are always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material will need to consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on. We want children to have a deep understanding of maths so that future maths is built on solid foundations.
We ensure children learn key vocabulary; mathematical talk is a key learning tool for all pupils. Where necessary, pre teaching, key vocabulary is a driver for pupil understanding and develops confidence of pupils to explain mathematically and therefore consolidate and embed their conceptual understanding.
We model learning and allow children to apply their knowledge to secure and deepen their understanding further.
We break key concepts down in to steps and ensure children have plenty of opportunity to apply the concepts they have learnt in different scenarios.
Children are encouraged to explain their thinking to ensure clarity, application and embedding of concepts.
We ensure that maths is meaningful and children understand where different mathematcial skills are used and applied in everyday life.
Alongside this we have started to use times tables Rock Stars to improve children's multiplication knowledge. We also use the programme 'My Maths' to support children's learning at home and Maths Whizz/Mathletics to secure children's knowledge and understanding further. We provide a range of intervention for children who may need extra support. This includes: Precision teaching, basic skills maths groups and pre-teaching.
Maths Mastery At Edgware Primary
What is "maths mastery"?
Maths mastery is an approach to teaching maths that focuses on depth of understanding rather than speed. Instead of moving quickly on to new topics, children spend time exploring a concept from different angles until they can use it confidently, explain it clearly, and apply it to new problems.
The whole class moves through the curriculum together. Rather than accelerating some children onto new content early, mastery teaching supports every child to reach a secure understanding of each concept — with extra support for those who need it, and greater depth and challenge for those who grasp ideas quickly, working on the same core content rather than moving ahead.
This approach is built around five connected principles, developed by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM):
- Coherence — learning is broken into small, logically ordered steps that build on one another.
- Representation and structure — concepts are shown in different ways (objects, pictures, symbols) so children see the maths behind the method, not just the method itself.
- Mathematical thinking — children are encouraged to reason, question and discuss their thinking, not just get to the right answer.
- Fluency — quick and flexible recall of number facts, freeing children up to focus on solving problems.
- Variation — children see a concept presented in varied ways and contexts, helping them understand its underlying structure rather than memorising a single method.
Joining the Maths Hub Mastery Specialists Programme
From September 2026, Edgware Primary is proud to be part of the Maths Hub Mastery Specialists Programme, working with the London Central NW Maths Hub. This gives us access to fully-funded professional development delivered by the NCETM, including "Teaching for Mastery" and Specialist Knowledge for Teaching Mathematics (SKTM) training.
Who's involved: a group of Lead Teachers at Edgware, drawn from our Reception and Key Stage 1 teams, will take part in this training over the course of the year. They'll also join a wider online community of teachers from other schools, sharing practice and reflecting on what works best for children.
What year groups does this cover? This year's programme focuses on Reception through to the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2), building the strong early foundations that everything in maths later depends on. We plan to build on this work in future years as our Lead Teachers bring their training back into the wider staff team.
Our pupils will:- develop and demonstrate good number sense
- develop a secure understanding of how to build firm mathematical foundations
- work to develop intentional teaching strategies focused on developing fluency in calculation and number sense for all children
- develop understanding and use of appropriate manipulatives to support teaching of mathematical structures
What will parents and children notice?
- Greater use of practical resources (objects, images and diagrams) alongside written methods, especially in Reception and KS1.
- More emphasis on number facts and fluency, so children can apply what they know quickly and confidently.
- Consistent mathematical vocabulary and sentence structures ("stem sentences") used across Reception and KS1, helping children explain their thinking clearly.
Learning at Home
Your child can access Times Tables Rock Stars and My Maths from home with their login details.
Here are the links to access them.