Maths at Southey Green Primary School

At Southey Green, maths isn’t just a subject—it’s an adventure! Every day, from our youngest learners in EYFS to our confident problem-solvers in KS1 and KS2, children dive into exciting maths sessions designed to spark curiosity and build strong foundations. Each year group focuses on fluency skills—from mastering number facts and times tables to understanding fractions, decimals, and percentages. We kick-start every lesson with Fluent in 5, a quick-fire arithmetic challenge that gets brains buzzing and ready to tackle the day’s learning. Our daily maths lessons go beyond numbers—they’re about thinking, reasoning and problem-solving. Following the National Curriculum and the innovative Ark Maths Mastery scheme, pupils develop the confidence to explore, question and apply maths in real-life contexts. In KS2, we take learning even further with Maths Meetings three times a week—fun, interactive sessions that help children revisit and reinforce key concepts, ensuring knowledge sticks and grows. At Southey Green, we believe maths opens doors to endless possibilities—and we make sure every child has the key!

EYFS - Throughout EYFS pupils are immersed in mathematical concepts and vocabulary through a mixture of interactive play and targeted mathematical activities. During this period children will also complete the ‘Early Years Number Sense Programme’, aimed at developing a concrete understanding of number concepts and subitising. In Southey Tots, mathematics is mainly delivered in provision through maths games and toys. There is one formal maths group activity planned each week and maths songs are sung in the daily routines. To develop vocabulary practitioners model mathematical language throughout their routines and during provision. In nursery, the Early Years number sense programme is taught and Early Years booklets are completed. Similar to tots, mathematics is also taught within the provision through toys, games and group activities. Maths’s songs are also used to develop children’s counting skills within daily routines. Foundation stage use the ‘Ark Maths Mastery Scheme’ and Number Sense to teach formal lessons daily as well as providing mathematical opportunities throughout the provision.

Key Stage 1 (Y1 and Y2) - The principle focusses of mathematics teaching in key stage one is that children develop confidence and mental fluency with whole numbers, counting and place value. As children move into Key Stage 1 at Southey Green, they will begin the ‘Number Facts Fluency Programme’, leading to a deeper understanding of number and number relationships and develop fluency in addition and subtraction facts. Alongside this, they will be expected to complete calculations, use manipulatives and representations to reason mathematically using the ARK Maths Mastery scheme.

Lower Key Stage 2 (Y3 and Y4) - The National curriculum states that by the end of Year 4 children should have memorised their multiplication tables up to 12x12, and this becomes the focus for the fluency sessions in Years 3 and 4 using the ‘Number Sense times tables scheme’. Children will be taught their times tables, related division facts and will be given the opportunity to practise through engaging games, activities and the use of ‘Times Table Rockstars’ to support automaticity.

In year 4, the children will complete the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) in June and as a school we are very proud of the achievements our pupils make in this area. Within the main mathematics sessions, teachers will continue to use the ‘Ark Maths Mastery Scheme’ to develop children’s efficiency and understanding of written and mental methods and be able perform calculations with increasingly larger numbers. They will also be expected to complete a range of problems, including working with decimals and fractions. 

Upper Key Stage 2 (Y5 and Y6) - in Upper Key stage 2, children will become confident in tackling a wider range of problems, including increasingly complex arithmetic and reasoning questions. They will become fluent in written methods for all four operations, and comfortable working with complex vocabulary and concepts such as fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio and algebra - laying the foundations for their transition to secondary education. 

Maths Lead - Mr S. Wright and Mr N.Hardy