Mathematics

Maths Foundation Learning Journey

Maths Higher Learning Journey

Inspirational Quote

“Mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.” “Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.”
Albert Einstein

Curriculum Intent

The Mathematics Department at the Barlow RC High School strives to inspire all children to reach their full academic potential. We have an ambitious curriculum that is fully inclusive for all children where knowledge and skills are embedded to not only advance mathematical fluency but also the naturally inquisitive and critical mind.

Pupils develop mathematical fluency, reasoning and problem solving – all of which are inextricably linked.

Our curriculum ensures: 

• Pupils are mathematically fluent and have opportunities to demonstrate depth of understanding through discussion and practice. This allows them to quickly and accurately justify and apply varying methods in differing contexts across the curriculum and wider life.
• Pupils develop their skills to think critically, reason clearly and communicate their understanding to others using mathematical language in order to test and prove conjectures.
• Pupils develop ambition and resilience towards problem solving of increasing and differing sophistication through varied practice and breaking down problems.

Key Stage 3 Curriculum

Mathematics is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Our KS3 maths curriculum is therefore designed to:

• Build mathematical fluency for students; 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.
• Enable students to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
• Provide the skills required to solve problems; regular exposure to problems will enable students to approach problems in a calm and logical manner improving their chances of a successful outcome.
• Develop mathematical vocabulary to communicate, justify, argue and prove. Develop
• their character, to include a love of learning using resilience, confidence and independence, so that they contribute positively to the life of the school, their local community and the wider environment.

Our aim is to encourage pupils to develop mathematical behaviour and as such our curriculum encourages students to develop deeper understanding to make links across curriculum areas and foster a mastery approach. The emphasis is on empowering students to notice, make connections, explain, justify, conjecture, prove. We adopt a mastery approach with one set of mathematical concepts and big ideas for all. We encourage students to deploy particular models to support their development (ratio tables, area model, graphing) as well as draw a pictorial representation to make sense of a given situation. Challenge is provided through depth rather than acceleration. These beliefs are in line with the current National College of Excellence in Teaching Mathematics drive on Mastery.

Key Stage 4 Curriculum

Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. At the Barlow the programme of study is organised into distinct domains, but pupils will develop and consolidate connections across mathematical ideas. They will build on learning from Key Stage 3 to further develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. Pupils will also apply their mathematical knowledge wherever relevant in other subjects and in financial contexts. The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programme of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress will always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material will consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.

We also offer the further mathematics AQA Level 2 Certificate for those pupils that are expected to certificate on the Mathematics GCSE course at grade 8 or 9 who will probably go on to study Mathematics at A-level.

We begin identifying likely candidates during the course of Year 10 then commence the course in September of Year 11 although we do like to start them early in Year 10 if we have capacity. A member of staff will deliver the content within a half hour slot each week during one lunchtime and it is also expected that pupils who follow the course will complete a significant amount of independent study as directed by the teacher.

Key Stage 4 Curriculum Support Materials

At Key Stage 4 we have bespoke online support material via the Mathshub which can be accessed via the school website:
https://thebarlowrchigh.co.uk/?page_id=5951 (password issued to pupils)

EDEXCEL SPECIFICATION: https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/mathematics/2015/specification-and-sample-assessment/gcse-maths-2015-specification.pdf

OCR SPECIFICATION:
https://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/168982-specification-gcse-mathematics.pdfGeneral support websites:
https://corbettmaths.com/https://www.gcsemathsquestions.co.uk/https://www.mathsgenie.co.uk/https://www.examq.co.uk/

School online platform used at Key Stage 4:
https://vle.mathswatch.co.uk/vle/

https://sparxmaths.com/

Progression

The logical thinking, problem solving and decision-making skills you learn whilst studying mathematics can lead to careers in IT, finance, engineering or teaching.

The list of potential careers is endless but to name a few that use mathematics on a daily basis include: