Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe – Galileo Galilei
Mathematics is a journey and long-term goal, achieved through exploration, discussion, incremental practice, and challenges through problem solving and application problems. At each stage of learning, students should be able to demonstrate a deep, conceptual understanding of the topic and be able to build on this over time.
Our Mathematics Mastery curriculum is academically ambitious, knowledge-rich and logically sequenced, designed to support memory. Central to the problem-solving nature of mathematics are; language and communication, conceptual understanding and mathematical thinking. Our curriculum is designed to create opportunities for students to think mathematically including skills such as systematic thinking, sorting and classifying, conjecturing and generalising. Students are taught to explain and reason using mathematical language in clear logical steps. Visual representations are used to support learning of new concepts and skills.
A detailed and cumulative three-year curriculum sequences topics to build upon and extend learning from one term to the next. Units are grouped in common themes for each half term which allows students to look at topics that are related and interconnected.
At KS4 we continue to follow a mastery curriculum which will be assessed at the end of year 11 in Edexcel GCSE Mathematics examinations. Students are expected to put into practice the skills and facts they learned at Key Stage 3 to develop and extend their abilities to discuss, interpret, describe and solve problems and present reasoned arguments using mathematics. They will continue to learn new topics and skills in: Number, Algebra, Ratio, Proportion and rates of change, Geometry and measures, Probability and Statistics. Within these areas there is a greater emphasis on independent and collaborative learning. Students will continue to improve their skills in multi-step and increasingly complex problem-solving questions. The aim is to enable students to meet the rigours of the Mathematics Specification, equipping them to succeed in using Mathematics in other subjects such as Science, Geography, PE, Technology, as well as in their home, and later, their college, university and work lives.
All Schemes of work will be reviewed at the end of each year.
Our approach to teaching and learning supports our curriculum by ensuring that lessons build on prior learning and provide sufficient opportunity for: exploration, discussions, questioning and reasoning, model answers, incremental independent practice and challenging work in context. We have developed this approach using Barak Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction (2012) and our own experience of what works in the classroom to develop our ‘Sequence of Learning’:
- Retrieve, Review and Locate: Lessons will begin with a short review of prior learning from previous topics of work.
- Teach New Learning: Students are introduced to the new learning for the lesson or sequence of lessons. This may involve a discussion or teacher explicit modelling.
- Analyse the Model: Students will work through the new material through guided practice.
- Practice: Students will work independently on new skills and will extend their thinking to more complex problems. Students will have the opportunity to combine their new learning with prior learning to interleave topics and give the students the opportunity to form links between different mathematical topics.
- Assessment: Throughout all the above, the class teacher is continuously providing live feedback for students in the form of regular checks for understanding, high level framed questions and live marking of the work. This highlights any misconceptions and allows timely teacher intervention.
