Subjects
Maths
Our Intent
We aim to send every young person into the world able and qualified to play their full part in it through an ambitious, creative and innovative curriculum which empowers students with the skills, knowledge and attributes to allow them to thrive and flourish in their school years and beyond.
It is our intention that every pupil leaves school confident and competent to deal with any mathematical problem they may face in their lives and future careers. This is achieved through promoting pupils to; be resilient in their approach, take risks to deepen their knowledge, forge valuable working relationships and take responsibility for and enjoy their learning. We aim to push pupils to be the best mathematicians by building up their skills base and maximising their attainment and understanding in mathematics at whichever stage that may be.
We ensure a coherent mathematics scheme of work that challenges all students and promotes teaching and learning that provides pupils with the knowledge and skills to achieve well academically and be successful once their education with us ends. This knowledge is consistently built upon, overlearned and perfected to ensure that every student is capable of achieving their full potential. Throughout all stages, pupils are taught to apply their knowledge in a range of functional contexts to help prepare them for the wider world.
How we intend to remove barriers
In Maths we remove barriers to learning and support students’ ability to access the curriculum through the use of informal and formal assessment. Every lesson is a tool to inform the teacher of progress made, support required and intervention needed for the next lesson.
Barriers may include gaps in subject knowledge, absence from school or misconception and misunderstanding. We aim to remove these barriers by regularly marking work and ensuring that there is clear opportunity for students to receive and work on feedback given by teachers.
Starter activities, home learning and intervention sessions are all tools used to support gaps in learning. Lessons are differentiated, where and when necessary, to remove barriers and enable each student to access the appropriate learning for their need to provide them with the best possible progress and opportunity to be successful.
Four common barriers (listed below), if left unchallenged, will limit the progress, engagement and development of our students. We therefore remove barriers to learning and support students’ ability to access the curriculum through the development of:
- Literacy
- Numeracy
- Oracy
- Vocabulary
Literacy
Ensuring students access reading and writing opportunities within a maths lesson is a non-negotiable. All teachers are ‘teachers of literacy’ and as such we expect all staff to:
- Train students how to break down questions and focus on command words
- Use the Common Language for Reading to encourage the transferability of key reading skills
- Challenge basic literacy errors using Literacy Marking Symbols.
At primary, students complete an arithmetic paper and a reasoning paper. The reasoning paper may be read to any student, although we encourage underlining key terminology and identifying what needs to be done to complete the problem. Marks are awarded for the answer and the working out. This is reinforced throughout our teaching and students understand the need to explain their method and reasoning.
At secondary, students regularly work on worded problems and investigations, all of which require students to build on their literacy skills and give reasoning for their answer. Goal free problems are also used as a method to assist students with their approach to questions that may require more reasoning or literacy skills.
Our assessments are carefully written to ensure that students are regularly assessed on reasoning and problem-solving questions and the weighting of these questions is in line with that of formal examinations. Students are encouraged to underline key terminology and identify what is needed to complete the problem.
Numeracy
Students, who arrive in Year 7, with Maths scores below the national benchmark are timetabled to receive an additional lesson to remove barriers to learning. Lessons are planned around the four operations and progress to the application of these skills within other mathematical topics to help develop students’ Numeracy skills across the curriculum. This numeracy intervention is bespoke to a cohort of students in the year group and as such, is very much a personalised pathway designed by specialist teachers to ensure that all students leave numerate.
Numeracy starters are also used across all stages to encourage consistent practice and recall of core numeracy skills.
Oracy
In order to develop oracy within a subject specific context, students are given opportunities to talk about their learning. Staff challenge the use of mathematical vocabulary and will direct pupils towards the correct terminology, when appropriate. Staff also ensure children are exposed to command words that are used in formal assessments and encourage the use of new terminology in their own learning. Staff model mathematical language throughout the school day and give children sentence stems and opportunities to use mathematical language across all lessons.
Vocabulary
All teachers are expected to immerse students in key maths terminology and provide regular opportunities to reinforce their understanding. Key mathematical vocabulary is highlighted to the pupils and pupils are guided to use this in their work. As part of learning, staff will regularly recap student knowledge including key terminology through the use of low stakes quizzes or assessments to identify levels of vocabulary retention.
How we develop skills for learning
Students are given opportunities to develop their skills for learning in each and every lesson. Engaging starter activities help students to recall the key concepts of prior learning, as well as giving them a chance to practice key mathematical skills that are needed in everyday life. Students are encouraged to recognise the purpose and use of each mathematical skill within real life and how they can use these skills outside of the classroom.
The skills for learning process within the Maths curriculum both reinforces the key Mathematical skills content and helps our students to know, remember and be able to do more at each stage of the curriculum.
Teacher assessment and formal assessment informs planning and progression within the curriculum. Students complete a variety of formal assessments to enable teachers to differentiate and further develop the skills for each student.
How we foster personal attributes
In Maths, our curriculum intent embodies that of the school. We are committed to ensuring students are exposed to the wider world context in order to develop them as well rounded individuals. Our curriculum demands independence, resilience and responsibility and these are all equally important attributes that we commit to building on in each of our schools.
Mathematics encourages perseverance, resilience as well as promoting efficiency and speed. Students are directed to work independently and in teams and are often given the choice on how they choose to work. Students are encouraged to create well-presented books with clear examples and methodical working out.
How we intend to enrich student experiences and broaden the horizons of students
Mathematics is embedded as part of everyday practise throughout our schools. Children are encouraged to use maths in all ‘real life’ opportunities. Examples of how we use embed maths to enhance student experiences would be;
- Enterprise events/ School Fayres – budgeting, buying, selling
- PE Lessons – measuring distance, timing sports events.
- Telling the time – Children use analogue and digital clocks around school, use of daily/ weekly timetables.
- Numeracy projects – designing theme parks, booking holidays
- In lesson knowledge – the history of maths, real life examples
- Maths challenges
- External mathematics lectures/events
- Puzzle clubs