Mathematics

Introduction to Mathematics at Harris Academy Morden

The Maths curriculum at Harris Academy Morden is based on the principle that Maths is essential to everyday life and necessary for financial literacy and most form of employment. It the key that opens the door to other aspects of life and underpins other areas of the curriculum. We aim to encourage students to recognise Maths as a universal language that allows us to communicate with others and to understand, affect and develop the world around us. 

Maths develops reasoning and problem solving skills, leading to logical thinking that builds well-rounded and ambitious citizens of the future. The skill of reasoning and problem-solving feeds into all future career paths, and specific maths knowledge is required for careers in computing, intelligence, engineering, construction and banking, to name but a few.

 

The intentions for Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 are the same, as these skills form the basis of all mathematics. However, students in KS3 spend much more time building fluency in skills that they can then apply to complex reasoning questions in KS4.

 

General overview of Maths 

The Harris Academy Morden Maths Key stage 3 curriculum gives students the opportunity to: 

· Become fluent in fundamental mathematical concepts 

· Reason mathematically by following lines of enquiry and conjecturing generalisations whilst using mathematical language 

· Solve problems by applying their fluency and reasoning skills to both routine and non-routine problems. 

We have designed the curriculum such that the interconnected nature of mathematics is prevalent. Concepts are studied using prior knowledge and in various contexts, one example is that we use perimeter of shapes to link the use of adding decimal numbers together. This is a feature of our curriculum. 

Through year 7, 8 and 9, we do not teach students in a tiered fashion. There is ‘core’ content followed by content designed to stretch and extend. The aim here is to ensure that we do not limit students to a particular tier, and hence outcome, at the end of their 5 years of mathematical study. Early setting of students has been shown to especially impact students from disadvantaged backgrounds, which is why we avoid setting until year 9, when it becomes important to provide an opportunity for additional, targeted support for students. We have high aspirations for our students and our curriculum is built around this. Teachers do, however have the autonomy to teach what is appropriate to their students and adapt for their needs. In years 7 and 8 we teach in mixed ability classes, which allows all students to be exposed to higher level mathematics. We expect that where students struggle, teachers adjust the curriculum appropriately to ensure that the students can access mathematical concepts at a varying pace. At the top end, we aim to provide opportunities for students go deeper into their understanding rather than accelerate through the curriculum. In year 9, where students are set, we aim to cover the same content to varying levels of difficulty for as long as we can to ensure that students are not pigeon-holed into a particular KS4 tier too early.

The mathematics schemes of work for KS4 is based on the KS4 National Curriculum.

Students will follow either the foundation or higher scheme of work depending on prior assessments, combined with consideration of the student needs and teachers’ input. Students are not limited to their current tier of study as this is fluid and dependent on the progress that each student is currently making. Problem-solving is at the heart of the curriculum and opportunities to develop problem solving and reasoning skills in maths are embedded within each unit of work.  Once students reach year 11, their teachers will decide upon how much they need to deviate away from the scheme of work based on thorough assessment. This takes place in lessons and through whole school mock exams.

The KS4 curriculum is focused on students developing mastery of mathematics and involves:  

1. develop fluent knowledge, skills and understanding of mathematical methods and concepts 

2.acquire, select and apply mathematical techniques to solve problems 

3. reason mathematically, make deductions and inferences and draw conclusions 

4.comprehend, interpret and communicate mathematical information in a variety of forms appropriate to the information and context.