The Cheam Maths department believes that every child deserves to be equipped with numeracy skills that can be used and applied in the world at large.
In a universally numerical world, the fundamental aim of the Maths Department is to build confidence and competence with numbers using an approach that is enjoyable, relevant, and meaningful.
The understanding of numbers and the ability to manipulate them is a key requirement of a healthy and successful society. To this end, all lessons are based around developing a strong foundation of knowledge that will enable pupils to contextualise sound understanding in order to solve problems and use numeracy in everyday life. Regular problem-solving activities across our curriculum equip pupils with knowledge and skills to encourage each child to use their imagination and logic in Maths.
This knowledge is then used as a springboard to develop the key skills to support the children as we prepare pupils for 13+ Scholarship and Common Entrance examinations, as well as the 11+ pre- tests. Our work schemes are based on the National Curriculum and the ISEB Common Entrance syllabus. We provide a sound grounding in the mechanical skills necessary to tackle examinations, without allowing the examination syllabus to be restrictive.
Pupils are set in ability groups from Year 3 upwards. This enables greater differentiation and affords each child the opportunity to work at his or her own pace, guided by expert teachers at every step of the way. Pupils are taught to confidently work independently as well as within a group.
To build a love of maths, class lessons are enhanced by various maths challenges across the year, such as the UKMT/Primary Maths Challenge, which our children always perform well in often being invited back to take part in the next stage of the competition.
As well as this, our in-house division competition is very popular and encourages children to become confident in their fundamentals. A huge part of this is times tables rockstars, which the children are enthused by, and is accelerating the children’s knowledge and progress with learning times tables and division facts.
The juniors also enjoy our annual Numeracy Day which sees children taking part in a variety of problem-solving activities.
Maths remains a subject at the very heart of the Cheam curriculum. The world may be constantly changing around our pupils, but we aim for them all to have a solid foundation of mathematical understanding to allow them to engage with and solve the challenges of the 21st Century.
