Aims Of the Curriculum Area

• We are a community school that teaches our students how to become global citizens. We aim to foster a sense of enjoyment and motivation, encouraging mathematical curiosity.
• We are a truly inclusive school that provides a broad and balanced curriculum. Students will develop thinking skills, reasoning, argument and justification in a mathematical context.
• We prepare our students for their future careers and embed literacy and numeracy into our lessons. Students will receive a solid foundation to ensure a smooth transition to future study and work.
• We deliver Quality First Teaching, bespoke intervention and build our exam strategies to drive academic success. Students will become confident mathematicians.

Teaching Methods & Student Organisation

• Students start their Maths journey in year 7 as mixed ability classes, giving us time to accurately assess their individual learning needs.  By October half term, students are set by ability facilitating differentiated teaching and matching the pace of teaching with students’ pace of learning.
• All lessons start with a Do Now Task; a short but challenging independent spaced retrieval activity. This is followed with a “Learning Question” which promotes challenge and provides a benchmark for measuring progress. A combination of teacher input (I do), demonstration/modelling (we do) and application (you do) coupled with skilfully used questioning helps assess student understanding.

Curriculum And Resources

• We follow the White Rose approach to teaching, which is built from the National Curriculum programme of study, but focusses on sound foundation knowledge and application towards problem solving. Our scheme encourages students to make links between many areas of the Maths curriculum.
• Students will continue their progression through the fields of Number, Algebra, Geometry and Statistics. Homework is set either on-line via https://vle.mathswatch.co.uk/ or is worksheet based. These tasks are set weekly and can be assessed by the teacher, the students themselves or through class activities involving peer assessment.

After Key Stage 3

• Students in Years 10 and 11 focus on preparation for OCR GCSE Mathematics. This course is concluded by the GCSE Mathematics examination in June of Year 11.
• Most students will also study Edexcel GCSE Statistics as part of their regular maths lessons. This additional GCSE provides the students with a broader understanding of mathematics and how it is applied in other areas of real life. It also supports students in applying to college and sixth form.

Other Activities

• Targeted intervention and support groups for students in all year groups take place throughout the year. This may involve 1 to 1 tuition, small breakout group sessions or additional maths catch-up classes during tutor time.  All these sessions are staffed by specialised maths instructors.
• Team Mathematics Challenges take place throughout the year, in which students compete against young mathematicians in other local schools. Students also have access to Puzzle Club and Chess Club as part of the academy enrichment programme.