This policy contains the key pencil and paper procedures that we recommend be taught within a school across Key Stages 1 to 3. It has been written to ensure consistency and progression throughout the school. It is vital that this document is considered, discussed and agreed upon by the whole staff before implementation. As well as the paper version given out and discussed at the coordinator conference each section is available here for you to download to make the policy your own. This will allow you to adapt, amend or adjust the policy for your school or development group. Discussing this type of policy across a development group, as well as in individual schools, is a positive way of ensuring continuity and progression across all schools.

Although the focus of the policy is on pencil and paper procedures it is important to recognise that the ability to calculate mentally lies at the heart of the Numeracy Strategy. The mental methods in the Framework for teaching mathematics should be taught systematically from Reception onwards and pupils should be given regular opportunities to develop the necessary skills. However mental calculation is not at the exclusion of written recording and should be seen as complementary to and not as separate from it. In every written method there is an element of mental processing. Sharing written methods with the teacher encourages children to think about the mental strategies that underpin them and to develop new ideas. Therefore written recording both helps children to clarify their thinking and supports and extends the development of more fluent and sophisticated mental strategies.

Children should be encouraged to see mathematics as both a written and spoken language. Teachers should support and guide children through the following important stages:

This policy concentrates on the introduction of standard symbols, the use of the empty number line to aid mental calculation and on the introduction of other pencil and paper procedures. It is important that children do not abandon jottings and mental methods once other pencil and paper procedures are introduced. Therefore children will always be encouraged to look at a calculation/problem and then decide which is the best method to choose - pictures, mental calculation with or without jottings, structured recording or a calculator. The long-term aim is for children to be able to select an efficient method of their choice (whether this be mental, written or in upper Key Stage 2 using a calculator) that is appropriate for a given task. They will do this by always asking themselves:

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Supporting documents

NEW September 2005: Updating division - a paper discussing the progression in division . This highlights some of the key knowledge and understanding children need to meet the age-related expectations set out in the Framework. It explores the idea of division using partitioning realted to multiples of the divisor.

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