Rockmount Primary School
A large community primary that built a culture of fluency across the whole school, and finished 2025 with 90% of pupils at the expected standard in KS2 maths, against 74% nationally.
At a glance
* End of Key Stage 2 mathematics, 2025. National comparators are the published national figures for the same year.
About the school
A large community primary in Upper Norwood, on the Croydon–Lambeth border.
Rockmount Primary School serves 449 pupils from Nursery to Year 6. In 2025 the school was judged Outstanding across every inspection category, with inspectors highlighting the strength of the curriculum, the consistency of teaching and the exceptional outcomes achieved by pupils. Mathematics was selected as one of the subjects for a deep dive during the inspection.
At Rockmount, mathematics is viewed as far more than a set of procedures to be mastered. Leaders and teachers want pupils to leave the school with confidence in number, a secure understanding of mathematical concepts, and the ability to apply their knowledge to unfamiliar situations. The school’s mathematics curriculum is built around high expectations for every child, and a belief that fluency, reasoning and problem-solving must develop together.
The school’s context, in its own words
“Rockmount Primary School is a local authority-maintained school in the London Borough of Croydon on the border of Lambeth. IDACI Decile 3 indicates the school is in the highest 30% level of deprivation. 20% of pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium Funding in comparison to 23.8% nationally.”
Source: Rockmount Primary School Pupil Premium Strategy Statement, published October 2023, updated Autumn 2025.
The starting point
A problem of consistency in fluency, not of aspiration or teaching quality.
Like many schools, Rockmount found that while pupils could often follow taught methods successfully, confidence with mental calculation was less secure. Teachers wanted children to recall number facts more rapidly, make connections between different areas of mathematics, and approach calculations with greater efficiency.
Staff recognised that when pupils spent too much time working out basic facts, it became harder for them to focus on reasoning, problem-solving and deeper mathematical thinking.
The challenge was not one of aspiration or teaching quality. Leaders wanted a consistent approach that would strengthen fluency from the earliest years and provide a clear progression in key numerical skills across the whole school.
When reviewing different approaches, Big Maths stood out because of its focus on numeracy, mental calculation and small-step progression.
Embedding a culture of fluency
Big Maths was never treated as a standalone programme. It became part of a wider maths curriculum.
Daily CLIC sessions quickly became embedded across the school. These sessions provided regular opportunities for pupils to revisit and strengthen core number skills, while the weekly Beat That! challenges helped pupils monitor their own progress and celebrate improvement.
Maths Lead, Rockmount Primary School
“What appealed to us was the clarity. Children know exactly what they are working towards, and teachers have a shared understanding of progression across the school. It has helped us build consistency without becoming formulaic.”
Teachers value the way Big Maths provides common language and routines across year groups. As pupils move through the school they encounter familiar structures while continuing to develop increasingly sophisticated mathematical understanding.
Importantly, fluency work is not isolated from the wider curriculum. Teachers use manipulatives, representations and discussion to ensure that rapid recall is supported by deep understanding.
Year 4 teacher, Rockmount Primary School
“The goal isn’t simply to make children quicker. The goal is to make them more confident. When pupils know their number facts well, they are far more willing to tackle challenging problems and explain their thinking.”
Mathematics in action
Purposeful, engaging lessons characterised by high levels of pupil participation.
Key Stage 1
Pupils practise counting patterns, number bonds and key facts with increasing confidence. Teachers use practical equipment and visual representations to help children make sense of mathematical relationships before moving towards more abstract methods.
Lower Key Stage 2
Pupils draw on an increasingly secure bank of known facts. Rather than relying solely on formal methods, they begin selecting efficient mental strategies and explaining why those methods work.
Upper Key Stage 2
Mathematical discussion is a notable feature of lessons. Pupils routinely justify their answers, compare different approaches and evaluate the efficiency of alternative methods.
Impact
The impact of this work can be seen both in classrooms and in outcomes.
Well above national, and sustained
In 2025, 90% of pupils achieved the expected standard in mathematics at the end of Key Stage 2, compared with 74% nationally. Forty-four per cent achieved the higher standard, compared with 27% nationally. The school’s average scaled score in mathematics was 108.4, significantly above the national figure of 104.8.
These outcomes build on a sustained pattern of success. Mathematics attainment at the expected standard was 87% in 2024 and 88% in 2023, demonstrating consistently strong performance over time.
Inspection findings also support this picture. During the 2025 inspection, Ofsted noted that the curriculum is carefully sequenced and that staff receive the training they need to deliver it with precision and consistency.
What Ofsted found
“The curriculum is carefully thought out in a logical order.”
“Pupils with SEND achieve exceptionally well.”
“Staff receive the training they need to deliver the curriculum with precision and consistency.”
Source: Ofsted inspection report, Rockmount Primary School, June 2025. Quotes are Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
The gap the school set out to close
Rockmount’s published pupil premium strategy names the challenge, and it is the one Big Maths is designed around.
Challenge 1, in the school’s own strategy document
“Gaps in reading, writing and maths. Pupils achieve well by the end of KS2 but fail to convert to a greater depth standard due to gaps in prior knowledge.”
Gaps in prior knowledge are what stop a child converting competence into confident, higher-standard performance. It is the problem the Big Maths framework is built to prevent: over 1,200 small learning steps, each one secured before the next is taught, so gaps never get the chance to widen.
In 2025, 44% of Rockmount’s pupils reached the higher standard in mathematics, against 27% nationally. That is the measure the school had identified as its own area for improvement.
Source: Rockmount Primary School Pupil Premium Strategy Statement (published October 2023, updated Autumn 2025); Key Stage 2 mathematics results, 2025.
Why it works
Rockmount’s experience suggests that the success of Big Maths lies in its simplicity and clarity.
“Pupils are not simply learning facts. They are learning how to use those facts to reason, solve problems and think mathematically.”
That combination of strong foundations and high expectations has helped create a culture in which mathematics is both accessible and ambitious for every child.
Structure with flexibility
The programme provides a structured progression in fluency while allowing teachers the flexibility to respond to the needs of their pupils.
Daily practice, early correction
Daily practice helps children secure essential knowledge, while regular assessment enables teachers to identify misconceptions before they become embedded.
Fluency as a foundation
Fluency is not treated as an end point. It serves as the foundation for richer mathematical thinking: reasoning, problem-solving and explanation.
I like the CLIC session because it is fast paced and it helps my brain to warm up.
— Pupil, Rockmount Primary School
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