4, St German's Place

Blackheath

London SE3 0NJ

Tel: 020 8858 0692

Mathematics

Mathematics is one of the key intellectual disciplines; it is concerned with structures, patterns and relationships in the areas of number, shape, probability and logic. It is used in aspects of everyday life and provides tools for many of the practical activities associated with business and commerce, architecture, communication, technology and engineering as well as for the exact sciences.

For children in our school, basic concepts, skills and operations are taught and practised but there are also opportunities for creative, investigative and problem-solving activities.  We aim to develop skills, allowing children to use them with confidence and to apply them to a wide range of situations.  Pupils may work individually or collaboratively to investigate and solve problems.  We want them to experience Mathematics as a lively and exciting subject.

Mathematical activity offers scope for reasoning and the use of imagination.  Children learn that problems may be solved in more than one way and that sometimes there is more than one solution.  It also provides opportunities for speaking and listening using a precise language.  Thus, skills learnt can be transferred to other disciplines.

Mathematics is taught from Reception to Year 2 in form groups, and with the input of the Pre-Prep Maths specialist who is able to teach smaller ability groups during some lessons.  From Year 3 onwards we set children for maths on the basis of ability and learning style.  The slightly larger Blue Group contains children able to learn relatively quickly and to cope with more difficult concepts and harder challenges, whilst the smaller Orange Group caters for children needing support and reinforcement. From the middle of Year 5 to the middle of Year 6 a third set is added to enable specific preparation for senior school entrance exams.

Our teaching programme is based on the National Curriculum Programmes of Study, the National Numeracy Strategy and the Primary Framework.  However, we are not limited by these and from Year 4 onwards we aim to include other topics as appropriate in order to start preparation for Senior School Entrance exams which are taken in Year 6.