Maths intent statement

At Barming Primary School we follow the ‘Focus Maths Scheme’.   Focus Maths has been designed to support teachers with the delivery of the Primary Mathematics Curriculum.   The materials within Focus Maths help teachers to plan and deliver Mathematics teaching and learning in a way which is challenging and aligned with end of year curricular expectations.   Focus Maths breaks down the Mathematics Curriculum so that teachers can plan for units of work in a manageable way.   The structure for each year group is identical.  

The focus Maths Scheme is…

1. A guide to help teachers and leaders structure progressive learning in Mathematics.  
2. A breakdown of the Mathematics Curriculum.  
3. An approach embedded in reaching end of year expectations and deepening Mathematics learning.
4. A structured approach to support teachers with planning exciting Mathematics learning.

The Focus Maths Scheme provides examples of questions to be taught, but does not provide a full lessons worth of activities as the Class Teacher needs to ensure the curriculum is adapted for the needs of their class.   By having a scheme that is heavily prescriptive means that teachers tend to stick to it rigidly.   At Barming Primary School, we do not feel this is good practice as ‘one size, does not fit all’.   Therefore, teachers are supplied with the lesson overview, but they are required to find resources that fully develop the individual child’s knowledge and understanding of Mathematical concepts.

Each term has been designed with 12 blocks.   It is acknowledged that the actual school year is slightly longer and this allows teachers flexibility to revisit and extend teaching blocks as required.  

Planning Vs Preparation

• One of the unique features of Focus Maths is that it potentially does the planning for the teacher, releasing them to focus on preparation.  
• In this way more time and thought can be afforded to where the starting points are for pupils and ensuring adaptation is efficient and effective.  
• Concepts like ‘pre-teaching’ and ‘pre-learning’ can be thought-through enabling intervention to be of maximum effectiveness.
• What you can be confident about is that Focus Maths provides you with comprehensive coverage of each National Curriculum year.
• It provides teachers with just enough guidance but leaves them very much in charge of the delivery.
• Formative assessment has been built in allowing teaching and assessment to have an even greater impact on day-to-day learning.
• Each school needs to decide whether each unit covers the planning that is required by senior leaders but school’s need to be aware of making planning efficient and not to get teachers to copy chunks of the units into a pre-prepared school format when the unit as a whole could be adopted as the planning format