Maths

Our Mathematics curriculum is designed so it has a purposeful, ambitious, creative, and inter-leaved structure. We have incorporated a high-quality mathematics sequenced scheme of study (Sparx maths  at KS3) which provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject. Maths is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology, and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment, therefore contextualized maths is embedded in the curriculum. By working together through collaboration and communication, the curriculum allows the students to aim high, become more aspirational 

The aims are to ensure that all pupils: 

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. 
• Through teaching and learning our students will be able to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships, and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language. 
• The curriculum empowers students to be able to solve problems by applying their mathematics skills to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and have the resilience to persevere in seeking solutions. 
• Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. 
• The progress of students is continually tracked and monitored through KS3 and KS4 to ensure progress is being made.
• The curriculum for key stage 3 is organised into distinct units, where pupils can build on their key stage 2 knowledge and make connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning, and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. 
• The KS4 curriculum follows further units of study geared towards the final tier of entry in year 11. 
• The maths curriculum enables students to apply their mathematical knowledge in other subjects such as science, geography, computing. 
• Cultural capital is built into the curriculum as students become more aware of the diverse cultural origins of topics have had on developing the present maths curriculum content.  
• Progression is based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next unit in the scheme of learning. Students who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through being offered more sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content in preparation for key stage 4. 
• Those who are not sufficiently fluent will further consolidate their understanding, through additional practice and intervention, before moving on. 

The maths faculty staff at Tottington High school are passionate about ensuring young people are equipped with knowledge and skills for the next stage of their lives after high school. This is achieved through working as a team and promoting inclusivity, striving to achieve the best every day and inspire students to reach their goals. 

To build academic excellence and ambition, a 5-year curriculum is in place which builds on the key concepts and skills which learners need to develop between years 7 to year 11. The foundations will be developed at KS3, taking their prior learning from KS2 into full account and at each subsequent stage picking up their existing knowledge and taking it to the next level. This is done through the delivery of interconnected units of study. An example of this is that early on in year 8 we learn how to multiply and divide fractions. Later in year 8 this knowledge is required in topics such as probability and into year 9 with the topic of straight-line graphs.

Over the course of the curriculum delivery, there is a focus on retrieval, each lesson students start with knowledge drills in the form of Flash Back/retrieval Fours. This activity prepares students for the key skills and knowledge required for their current learning and ensures that students are continuously revisiting material from earlier in their maths skills journey. Key unit assessments over each term test student’s knowledge and understanding of the newly acquired material whilst the interleaving of the end of term assessments truly test student’s acquisition of knowledge over time. Assessments offer students the opportunity to assess where they are at with a key focus on what areas require improvements. This is done using feedback sheets with question level analysis and further practice which allows for bespoke and well-informed next steps for improvement.   

The teacher starts each lesson with a knowledge drill in order to review relevant prior knowledge, to activate schemata ready to build new knowledge into long term learning. Modelling is carried out during the lesson of the topic to illustrate problem solving techniques. The students are taught and discuss the relevance of the topic in context to real world applications.

A small quantity of new knowledge is presented at a time with the opportunity for students to then practice this new material using workbooks and booklets/worksheets, direct modelling by staff supports students to see accurate mathematical structure and form. PowerPoint resources enable pictorial representation which may be in the form of bar models for key concepts.

Questioning, which is considered and controlled is carried out throughout the course of the lesson. Staff must play the role of facilitator, allowing students where possible to form their own understanding and methods for solving problems.

Our assessment plan offers plenty of opportunity for retrieval practice and assessment of long-term learning. It is designed to assess student’s capabilities in newly acquired knowledge whilst promoting their retention and recall of knowledge over time.   

Progress and attainment data is collected three times a year from the exams sat in Autumn, Spring and Summer, these assessments take into consideration all learning to date, interleaving the learning that has taken place. Interim assessments and quizzes take many forms, are varied in style to meet a variety of disciplines and are appropriate to the topic being taught. Learners take part in regular knowledge drills. These tasks assess knowledge learnt over time and consolidate required knowledge for the current topic.  At Key Stage 3 we use progress trackers which are regularly updated using data from lesson performance and assessments, these are modified for access so that students can track their development and be aware of their strengths and weaknesses in their progress. At GCSE, students are told their target and are then informed of steps needed to achieve these which may involve a timely intervention schedule.  

Students receive feedback from assessments by QLA (Question Level Analysis) feedback sheets to help them identify skills gaps and therefore make further progress. Feedback can take the form of “Live marking” in the classroom where students have opportunity to correct and improve their work in the moment as well as whole class feedback and question level targeted analysis. Our vision of aiming high by being resilient and committed, excellence in progress can be achieved by our students.

A calendar for further enrichment in Maths is available through opportunities of further study. It is our vision that all year groups will have access to meaningful enrichment in the subject outside of their normal classroom lessons through experiences cross-curricula activities. Students are regularly encouraged to think critically in competitions and puzzles shared within the Academy. We have entered the national UKMT challenges at KS3 and have historically had success in this national challenge.   Homework is designed to support the understanding of key concepts and is issued to all students within their school class charts. Sparx homework links in with the learning of key vocabulary and terminology and practices core skills and the application of knowledge.

Maths can lead on to further study at A-Level and degree level in the subject as well as Economics. Maths underpins any role and career but has strong links to the following careers: 

• All forms of engineering 
• Data analyst 
• Data scientist 
• Chartered accountant 
• Investment analyst 
• Research scientist (maths) 
• Financial and economic careers 
• Statistician 
• Astronomer
• Data led processing in sales

Careers information can be found using the link below. 

https://successatschool.org/advicedetails/186/Why-Study-Maths%3F
http://www.mathscareers.org.uk/
https://targetcareers.co.uk/uni/degree-subject-guides/313825-mathematics-degrees-what-you-ll-study-and-your-career-options
http://www.futuremorph.org/wp-content/uploads/games/scienceandmaths/index.html#/intro
http://www.futuremorph.org/
https://successatschool.org/advicedetails/770/what-are-stem-subjects

Revision Sites

Sparxmaths.co.uk  (pupils have their own login details. If they are unsure of them please speak to the class teacher).

www.corbettmaths.co.uk

(Plenty of revision materials categorised by topics including video clips and answers.)