The curriculum is sequenced coherently, allowing the interweaving of topics to support the acquisition of key concepts; it is compatible with the key requirements of the National Curriculum and robust collaboration between primary and secondary phases ensures progression.
Curriculum components are repeated over time, ensuring all pupils practise retrieval, master skills and concepts, develop long term memory and make progress from starting points. Retrieval tasks are built into all lessons to enable pupils to remember more.
The ‘Bigger Picture’ is shared with pupils, providing them with a rationale for their learning and to make links between lessons, allowing them to know more and remember more.
Teachers ensure lessons provide a supportive environment for all pupils including those with SEND, removing barriers to learning and participation through adaptive planning, modelling, scaffolding, explicit instruction and metacognitive strategies.
Accurate, regular assessment enables an informed and systematic judgement to be made about a pupil’s knowledge, understanding, skills and attitude. Pupils are provided with feedback and set ‘perfecting our work’ targets to close any learning gaps.
Teachers provide a language-rich environment. Key tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary is mapped out carefully across the curriculum to enable our pupils to learn the correct words and phrases in the right order. A phonics-led approach is used to improve reading and spelling. Carefully selected texts are used to foster a culture of scholarly reading.
Pupils are given opportunities to consider how their learning links to future study and careers, and the importance of British Values.
The curriculum is enriched to include experiences outside the classroom, such as Trust Maths Challenges – these are held annually for Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. Students compete with other schools in the Trust to display their knowledge of the subject.
Homework tasks allow pupils to consolidate and build upon the knowledge they have developed in class. Homework is used to focus on areas of weakness identified in class and then extend that knowledge. Homework is not a repetition of classwork but rather an opportunity for students to revisit areas of concern and investigate the next steps in their learning. All students are provided with a subscription to the website MathsWatch which allows them to access video clips and exercises in their own time.
Students are provided with a range of recommended reading materials to support and extend their journey through the curriculum. These are designed to be accessible and informative for all students and provide an opportunity for students to investigate the wider context of their learning.
Key Stage 4 Assessment Objectives
A01: Use and apply standard techniques. Students should be able to:
- accurately recall facts, terminology and definitions
- use and interpret notation correctly
- accurately carry out routine procedures or set tasks requiring multi-step solutions
A02: Reason, interpret and communicate mathematically. Students should be able to
- make deductions, inferences and draw conclusions from mathematical information
- construct chains of reasoning to achieve a given result
- interpret and communicate information accurately
- present arguments and proofs
- assess the validity of an argument
A03: Solve problems within mathematics and in other contexts. Students should be able to:
- translate problems in mathematical or non-mathematical contexts into a process or a series of mathematical processes.
- make and use connections between different parts of mathematics
- interpret results in the context of a given problem
- evaluate methods and results obtained
- evaluate solutions to identify how they may have been affected by assumptions made.
Key Stage 5 Assessment Objectives
Mathematical argument, language and proof:
- Construct and present mathematical arguments
- Understand and use mathematical language
- Comprehend and critique mathematical arguments and proofs
Mathematical problem solving:
- Recognise the underlying mathematical structures in a situation; simplify and abstract appropriately to solve problems
- Evaluate the validity of solutions to problems
- Understand and use the concept of a mathematical problem-solving cycle
Mathematical modelling:
- Translate a given situation into a mathematical model; understand its assumptions
- Use a mathematical model to explore situations
- Interpret the outputs of a mathematical model
- Understand that a mathematical model can be refined by considering its outputs
