Maths
Mathematics at Grove Junior School
At the Grove Junior School, we are committed to providing all children with a rich, engaging and ambitious, mathematics curriculum. We follow the Herts Essentials Maths Scheme, which ensures clear progression in knowledge and skills across the school. This scheme is carefully designed to build fluency, reasoning and problem-solving, while giving the children the opportunity to revisit and deepen their understanding as they move through the year groups.
To bring maths to life and to ensure every learner can succeed, we supplement the scheme with a wide range of additional activities. These include opportunities for oracy and collaborative learning, where children explain their thinking and learn from each other. Teachers also plan for ‘talk less teaching’ activities, so pupils are active participants in their learning rather than passive listeners. This approach develops confidence, resilience and a genuine enjoyment of mathematics.
Our curriculum is structured around the main strands of the National Curriculum, program of study: Number, Measurement, Geometry, Statistics and Algebra. Within these areas, the children develop essential skills such as place value, calculation strategies, reasoning with fractions and interpreting data. By using real-life contexts and practical problems, we help children understand how mathematics connects to the practical wider world.
As part of the journey, pupils take the statutory Multiplication Tables Check at the end of Year 4 and the KS2 STAs at the end of Year 6. At Grove Junior School, children are well prepared for these through ongoing teacher assessments, regular opportunities to practise and timely support where it is needed. Our focus is not just on the tests themselves, but on equipping children with secure mathematical foundations that will serve them beyond primary school.
We make learning interactive and fun by using a wide range of manipulatives, such as counters, number lines and place value equipment. These hands-on resources enable children to explore concepts concretely before moving to pictorial and abstract representations. Combined with games, challenges and collaboratives tasks, they help ensure that mathematics is a subject children look forward to and enjoy.
At Grove Junior School, our aim is for every child to leave with confidence in their mathematical ability, curiosity about numbers and a positive attitude to problems-solving that will last a lifetime.
Maths at The Grove Junior School