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

Albert Einstein

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over thousands of years, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary in most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education, therefore, provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.  

Mathematics is a proficiency that involves confidence and competence with numbers, measures, shape and geometry. It requires an understanding of the number system, a repertoire of computational skills and an ability to solve number problems in a variety of ways in which information is gathered by counting and measuring and is presented in graphs, diagrams, charts and tables.  

Mathematics gives children a way of coming to terms with their environment. Practical tasks and real life problems can be approached from a mathematical point of view. Mathematics provides children with imaginative areas of exploration and study and gives them the materials upon which to exercise their mathematical skills. These skills are a necessary tool of everyday life. Mathematics should help children to develop an appreciation of, and enjoyment in, the subject itself; as well as a realisation of its role in other curriculum areas.

We aim to develop lively, enquiring minds encouraging pupils to become self- motivated, confident and capable in order to solve problems that will become an integral part of their future.

In line with the National Curriculum for mathematics, we aim to ensure that all pupils:

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems  
• can reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language  
• can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions