It is an exciting time within the maths department as we transition towards the Sparx Maths Curriculum which embeds our vision of teaching for mastery. Year 7 – 8 are currently following this scheme of learning with the intention for it to be completely rolled out to Year 11 by 2029.  Teaching for mastery holds the belief that all students can learn and enjoy mathematics. A deep inter-connected understanding is built through opportunities to reason, think and communicate. Students in Year 7 & 8 are taught in mixed attainment groups; students have equal access to learning and are all held to the same high expectations to maximise their potential. All students are taught using the departments’ shared lesson resources which our subject experts have collaboratively planned and developed. These include the core concepts of topics, utilising representations for visual aids and variation in questioning to further student understanding. Those who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through stretch activities which offer rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content.

Years 9 – 11 are continuing to follow a model of progression and spiralling curriculum based upon the White Rose Maths scheme of learning. The expectation is that the majority of students will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace and decisions about when to progress are always based on the security of student understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. As with Year 7 – 8, there are rich and challenging problems available to stretch our able students.  Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on. Students in Years 9 – 11 are taught in sets. This is monitored closely to ensure that students are stretched, and supported, appropriately. We use various types of assessment to monitor the progress of our students.

An online home learning task is set weekly on Sparx Maths for all year groups. The topics set are aligned with the scheme of learning the student is following in lessons. This means most of their home learning is to independently practice and embed knowledge recently taught in lessons. The remaining element of the home learning is retrieval practice of topics previously taught. Sparx uses artificial intelligence to build a personalised set of questions to match your young person’s current level of understanding. The aim is to achieve 100% completion rate. Teachers receive a detailed weekly insight following completion informing the support required and is followed up in lessons. Home learning can be monitored through the parent portal. To promote high-quality written work, Sparx maths delivers bookwork checks to 100% of students as they complete their homework. For trickier questions, students are encouraged to watch the support videos. For further support, students are encouraged to speak to their teacher or attend the weekly Sparx Club.

Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9)

The aim of the KS3 curriculum is for students to master key skills and apply their knowledge to challenging and unfamiliar contexts. The curriculum is designed to review and build upon the students’ knowledge from KS2. There is a focus on the use of mathematical models to develop understanding through concrete, pictorial and abstract representations. The scheme is designed to empower the students with the numeracy skills and the fluency required to fully access GCSE Maths concepts when they move to KS4 study.

Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)

In Year 10 and 11 the students follow pathways which are designed to cater for their individual needs and rates of progression. Our students in Year 11 are following the GCSE course with the AQA examination board. Details of the specification can be found here https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/mathematics/gcse/mathematics-8300/specification-at-a-glance

Some of our year 11 students study Extended Maths which is a qualification taken in addition to GCSE Maths.  It focusses on extending GCSE content with new applications and problem solving rather than teaching new content.  The Extended Maths Certificate is aimed at students targeted to achieve a grade 7 or above in GCSE Maths.  The students who are working towards this added qualification attend extra lessons on Wednesdays after school and will be taking the exams for it at the same time as their other GCSEs in summer. We are trialling this qualification at present and we will look to see what benefits it affords our mathematicians before offering it to more students in future years.