At Ryton Infants we believe that every child is entitled to a strong mathematical foundation. It is crucial to maintain children’s enthusiasm so they develop positive self esteem as learners and feel confidence to express their ideas. The principal focus of mathematics teaching within the Infant school is to ensure that children develop confidence and mental fluency with whole numbers, counting and place value. This involves working with numerals, words and the four operations. Children will work a range of with practical resources such as five and ten frames, Numicon, Rekenreks and tens and ones.

Within Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children have an additional Maths lesson which supports them to develop good number sense.  Mastering Number aims to develop fluency in number facts so facts are recalled with automaticity and a deep understanding of number relationships within Maths. Sentence stems are used to allow the children to clearly communicate their mathematical ideas. The aim of Mastering Number is to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children. This will ensure that over time children will leave KS1 with fluency and calculation and a confidence and flexibility with number.

Children should develop their ability to recognise, describe, draw, compare and sort different shapes and use the related vocabulary.

Teaching should also involve using a range of measures to describe and compare different quantities such as length, mass, capacity/volume, time and money.

By the end of year 2, pupils should know the number bonds to 20 and be precise in using and understanding place value. An emphasis on practice at this early stage will aid fluency. Pupils should read and spell mathematical vocabulary, at a level consistent with their increasing word reading and spelling knowledge at key stage 1.

At Ryton Infants we follow White Rose Small Steps and enhance resources to support the teaching of this. Problem Solving and Reasoning is part of our daily maths lessons so children are able to use what they have learned to solve problems and to explain their thinking using sentence stems.

Our mathematics curriculum is diligently sequenced to ensure that knowledge gained is cumulative.

Within Year 1 and 2 the weekly homework is predominately based on the maths concepts covered that week.

Within EYFS maths the children are taught during specific daily maths lessons but maths is also planned into the daily routine and learning environment. 

• Days of the week song and talking about the day 
• General counting e.g. counting how many bananas there are in the fruit box. 
• Counting songs 
• Use of ordinal numbers e.g. “Sam line up first, Lilly line up second…” 
• Maths games such as counting games, shape sorting, ordering the daily routine. 
• Noticing maths in the environment e.g. asking children what they notice about a tree. They may say it is tall, has circles on etc. 
• Incorporating Maths in areas of continuous provision wherever possible e.g. an activity in the water which focuses on understanding and developing their language of capacity. 
• Incorporating Maths in daily routines e.g. during registration time. If there are 3 children absent the children clap 3 times. Having labels on pencil pots with a representation of a number to show how many pencils go in that pot during tidy up time.  

Children’s mathematical mark making and graphics are valued and encouraged