Mathematics Curriculum

Principles and Purpose of our Maths Curriculum

The impact of our Maths curriculum is to provide students with effortless fluency in a in a broad range of mathematical skills. We aim for students to be numerate and to have a strong understanding of algebra. We want them to be able to make links between abstract and concrete topics, so they need to be good problem solvers and everything we do is designed around building effortless fluency. We don’t just want  students to be able to utilise the skills we teach them, we want them to be able to do things quickly and easily, developing skills that they can use in a broad range of careers.

We want to equip students with qualifications that they'll be able to take out into the real world with them, providing them with strong academic currency. We want to be able to open doors, give students the opportunity to choose what they want to do. It's not the core driver behind what we're doing, but it's going to happen if we manage to build fluency to the levels that we are aiming for.                                                    

The following principles have informed the planning of our Maths curriculum

• Entitlement: All pupils have the right to learn what is in the United Learning curriculum, and we have a duty to ensure that all pupils are taught the whole of it. All pupils in maths are exposed to extensive number, algebra, geometry, proportion, and statistics content and are not taught on separate pathways until Key Stage 4. This ensures that all pupils can access all areas of maths and have time to develop their skills before limiting their entitlement to Higher Maths.
• Coherence: Taking the National Curriculum as its starting point, our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that powerful knowledge builds term by term and year by year. We make meaningful connections within subjects and between subjects. Knowledge is revisited without having a spiral curriculum, and to ensure that classic misconceptions between topic areas are avoided.
• Mastery: We ensure that foundational knowledge, skills and concepts are secure before moving on. Pupils revisit prior learning and apply their understanding in new contexts. Mathematical concepts are taught in-depth and continually revisited through careful interleaving of content into future teaching topics. The focus on retention of knowledge is at the core of the maths curriculum; the mastery approach supports this.
• Adaptability: The core content and fundamental skills of the curriculum are delivered to all students, and teachers will adapt lessons to meet the needs of their own classes. Teachers are provided with resources for the whole curriculum by United Learning and use these to plan lessons that meet the expectations of the maths curriculum in KS3 and KS4.
• Representation: All pupils see themselves in our curriculum, and our curriculum takes all pupils beyond their immediate experience. Maths is universal, providing all pupils with an elegant and logical way of viewing the world. Where our resources include names and places, these have been selected to be inclusive. We believe that a secure understanding of Maths is an essential starting point for all young people.
• Education with character: Mathematics is a common language in which all pupils can solve, analyse, and problem solve. Our curriculum supports pupils to build logical reasoning, critical thinking and is mentally rigorous.

For more information regarding the curriculum content, ‘what we teach, why it is taught and when’ please view our curriculum maps below.

To access additional learning resources to support students learning in maths please refer to the KS3 Knowledge Organiser and Sparx Maths (KS3) or The Regis SP and Hegarty Maths (KS4) and our primary learning platforms Oak Academy and Seneca.