GCSEPearson Edexcel
A LevelPearson Edexcel
Key staffLead Teacher
Mr R Parker |
MathsMathematics is important in everyday life. It is integral to all aspects of life and with this in mind we endeavour to ensure that students develop a healthy and enthusiastic attitude towards mathematics that will stay with them to encourage economic wellbeing. Mathematical experiences help develop skills such as communication, generalizing, evaluating and enquiry, we recognise this importance and therefore provide our students with a wide range of mathematical experiences. It will be expected that students are able to critically think logically and explain their reasoning through speaking and listening, mental mathematics and informal / formal written methods.
We aim to provide a mathematics curriculum, which will produce individuals who; become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, reason mathematically following a line of enquiry, an solve problems by applying their mathematics, know and understand the importance of mathematical language to develop mathematical vocabulary within justification, argument and proof and are creative, inquisitive, enquiring and confident and have an appreciation of mathematics. Quick informationWhat do we teach?Key Stage 3Our curriculum is based on the key elements of mathematics in the 2014 National curriculum:
Throughout KS3 we endeavour to cover all aspects of these elements to solidify the knowledge that pupils will need in order to access the curriculum in KS4. Our KS3 curriculum builds upon the 2014 National Curriculum and deepens their knowledge throughout the course. This allows us to create confident and numerate students able to progress to KS4 and beyond. In 2020 we adopted the White Rose Maths Scheme of Work. In our secondary curriculum, we start with algebra as this is key to the secondary curriculum as well as being comparatively new for pupils. Again we carefully order the skills – understanding notation, one-step equations, then two-step equations etc., revisiting the concepts in other areas of the curriculum and making sure that topics are covered so pupils experience variety as well as consolidation. The fundamental idea behind our curriculum design is to support pupils to be able to perform simpler tasks so they can then move on to perform more complex tasks. For example, we cannot expect pupils to add two numbers together before they understand what each individual number represents. This thinking gives rise to a typical sequence of ‘blocks’ of mathematics that you will see in most of our year groups. Within each of these blocks we then have ‘small steps’ which are again sequenced in order of difficulty and dependency. Our curriculum is designed to use skills that have already been learnt in different contexts (sometimes called ‘interleaving’) whenever we can. This helps pupils to remember and to make connections between different parts of the curriculum. For example, in Year 8, fractions and percentages will feature in:
…before being built on and extend in Year 9 and beyond. We try to include this revisiting in our example questions, and also in the worksheets that accompany our small steps and with other resources to help pupils remember:
Feedback to students Work is taught in short units or blocks and at the end of each block there is an assessment and students are given feedback on the skills that have achieved. Enrichment We offer entries to the UKMT Maths challenges at key stage 3 and have accessed the Royal Institute of Mathematics Masterclasses for our more able students. 
GCSEIn Year 9 we start delivering the GCSE course – we follow the Edexcel scheme of work and classes follow either the route map for either Foundation or Higher Tier. We are flexible with our entry policy and final decisions on tiers of entry are made in March of year 11 leaving the door open for those borderline students to sit Higher tier for as long as possible.
We offer the Edexcel Entry Level Certificate for students who need that extra support or confidence to gain their grade 1. For our more able students we have offered a variety of opportunities from Edexcel Level 2 Awards in Year 9 to Level 2 Certificate in Further Mathematics in Year 11 depending on the cohort. We have attended Maths Fest and Maths Inspiration Theatre shows promoting the understanding of the wider uses of Maths in everyday life and within different careers. | ||||
© King Edward VI High School 2024
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