Mathematics

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. It is therefore vital that all students learn exactly how Mathematics relates to and underpins other curriculum subjects and that they develop the skills that are necessary to help achieve success in further education, employment and adult life.

At Prenton we place an early emphasis on developing strong numeracy skills which underpin the entire Mathematics curriculum and support students’ learning in other areas such as Science, Design Technology, Computing and Geography. The Mathematics curriculum also encourages students to make connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems.

Staff

Curriculum Provision for Years 7 and 8

Currently students have five Maths lessons per week in Year 7 and Year 8, with home learning set once a week. Over the two years we ensure that all students become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics through varied and frequent practice; to ensure that they learn to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and to ensure that they can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems. The curriculum is split into several broad areas:

• Ratio
• Proportion and Rates of Change
• Number, Algebra
• Geometry and Measures
•Probability and Statistics

You can access further information on the Mathematics curriculum by clicking on the link below:

Secondary National Curriculum

All students are taught in ability groups throughout Years 7 and 8. This allows students of similar ability to be taught together allowing for maximum progression. Groups are based upon students’ Key Stage 2 scores on entry to school, but in addition we also look at the results from baseline tests completed in the first two weeks of year 7. Movement between groups, however, does occur throughout years 7 and 8. From the outset, students are given aspirational targets and regular assessment allows us to monitor the progress made towards targets. In addition, we have a programme of intervention and support for those students who struggle mathematically such as 1:1 tuition as well as accelerated learning for our academically able.

GCSE Curriculum

Qualification: GCSE in Mathematics
Examination Board: Edexcel (www.edexcel.com)
Syllabus: Specification 1MA1

Assessment: Assessment comprises three written examinations taken at the end of a 3 year course; two calculator papers and one non-calculator paper. All examinations are taken at the end of Year 11.

Each paper contributes 33.33% of the qualification and lasts 1 hour 30 minutes.

Each paper contains 80 marks and will have a range of question types; some questions will be set in both mathematical and non-mathematical contexts.

The qualification will be graded and certificated on a nine-grade scale from 9 to 1 using the total mark across all three papers where 9 is the highest grade. Individual papers are not graded. At Higher Level grades 9-4 are available, whilst at Foundation level grades 5-1 are available.

Facilities
All 7 classrooms in the Maths department are equipped with Clevertouch interactive whiteboards. All students have access to the online program Mathswatch so that they can continue their learning outside the classroom.

Extra-Curricular opportunities:

Mathswatch club
UKMT club (by invitation only)
Maths homework support club

Support websites for revision etc:
www.vle.mathswatch.com
www.mrbartonmaths.com
www.corbettmaths.com

Career Development | Further or Higher Ed opportunities post-16
Numerous opportunities! GCSE mathematics is a prerequisite for further education and can lead to careers in many different areas such as engineering, accountancy, medicine, architecture and statistics to name but a few.