At David Livingstone Academy, we take a mastery approach to the teaching and learning of
mathematics. Fundamentally, this rests on the belief that all children can – and, indeed, must – be
successful in the study of mathematics. We do not accept that ‘some people cannot do maths’; we
do not accept that mathematical study is boring or unnecessary; we do not accept that prior
attainment should limit what a child is capable of learning. Mathematics is for everyone at David
Livingstone.
Our English curriculum is driven by a canon of culturally important, high-quality texts. This is the stimulus for all reading, writing and context work. We have chosen high-quality texts which lead to the development of the personal and cultural capital of the children at David Livingstone. We believe that in order for our children to leave David Livingstone as successful learners they need to have knowledge of a range of these texts. We do not differentiate within the class as to the text they read; we pitch the texts slightly above the national reading level for that age group in order to boost the children’s vocabularies and their fluency in reading. We do not choose picture books as a stimulus as these do not offer reading opportunities. We set our expectations high and expect the children to meet those expectations.
