Maths
Our Aim
At Downland, our mathematics teachers work together to make a big difference for every pupil. We strive to shape happy, confident and resilient learners who discover that mathematics brings an exciting journey of discovery, understanding, and a lifetime of opportunities.
All pupils experience challenges in maths, but many pupils at Downland have a negative emotional reaction to the subject following their transition to us from primary school and are less able to deal with these. Our pupils are often anxious about aspects of mathematics and may feel a range of emotions, including frustration and anger. At Downland, we try to remove the negative pressure pupils may feel without removing the challenge.
In order to lay the foundations for learning, we embed practices that build a culture of deep understanding, confidence and competence in mathematics – a culture that produces strong, secure learning and real progress. We know our pupils and the experiences they have had and use this knowledge to make our schemes work for them, adding extra time where necessary for topics that need most attention and adapting other learning accordingly. We model positive attitudes towards mathematics throughout the whole school, ensuring that all staff encourage and model motivation, confidence, and enjoyment in mathematics for all pupils.
At Downland, we aim to improve literacy in all subject areas. Every teacher communicates their subject through academic language and recognises the importance of teaching pupils’ how to read, write and communicate effectively; literacy skills are at the heart of knowing and doing every subject. In mathematics, we teach specific reading strategies for written problems to support pupils to read like mathematicians. We teach spelling, grammar and punctuation explicitly to improve pupils’ writing and provide targeted support to pupils who struggle to write fluently. We also seize chances to reinforce mathematical vocabulary. We consider which words and phrases to teach as part of curriculum planning and provide multiple opportunities for pupils to hear, see and use these words.
Our research-based schemes of learning are designed to support a mastery approach to teaching and learning and are consistent with the aims and objectives of the National Curriculum. Our schemes develop all three key areas of the National Curriculum – fluency, reasoning and problem solving – giving pupils the knowledge and skills they need to become confident mathematicians. We have constructed a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all learners the essential knowledge they need to engage in wider society and succeed in life.
Sometimes we might be a little behind or ahead of the scheme schedule; we deliberately build flexibility into our schemes to allow for these variations. We also recognise that spending time on a topic does not mean that all pupils will ‘master’ it the first time they see it, and that they need to see it again and again in different contexts and in different years to help them truly develop their understanding on their journey to mastery, so we have built in the revisiting and reinforcing features of spiral curricula too.
Key Stage 3
At Downland, we use GL assessment to measure the performance of our pupils across the curriculum and identify gaps in their learning. Through robust and regular assessment, we have identified that many of our pupils operate significantly below their age-related expectations. If our pupils are operating significantly behind the expectations for their year group then we need to consider what is realistic for these pupils, given their needs, in terms of catching up and keeping up.
Our KS3 schemes of learning draw upon global best practices and cutting-edge research to boost our pupils’ confidence and give them the best preparation for progressing to GCSE study. Our schemes have been built on a well-paced, structured Core Curriculum based around 10 key principals designed to nurture confidence and raise achievement – fluency; problem-solving; reflection; mathematical reasoning; progression; linking; multiplicative reasoning; modelling; concrete-pictorial-abstract; relevance).
Every topic in our KS3 schemes of learning are broken down into manageable steps that build on each other so the learning journey is complete. If appropriate, our teachers focus on teaching the key objectives from the DfE’s ‘Ready-to-Progress’ criteria) – the most crucial steps in children’s learning – to help our teachers take steps to close any gaps or to revise and deepen pupils’ understanding of the most important concepts within the National Curriculum. These crucial steps lay a solid foundation for more complicated learning later on and mean our pupils will be able to more easily access many of the elements of the curriculum as they progress to KS4.
We provide extra scaffolding and support on key concepts, giving pupils the mathematical foundations they need to progress with confidence. We also deepen pupils’ understanding of key concepts, and build problem-solving skills so pupils can explore key concepts to their fullest.
Key Stage 4
At Downland, we aspire for all pupils to achieve a recognised mathematics qualification. We use our relevant data to monitor pupil progress during KS3 and help inform pupil’s choices for KS4.
In year 9, pupils study for an Entry Level Certificate in Mathematics, enabling them to develop the underpinning skills and understanding to provide a progression route to GCSE. We also aspire for all Year 9 pupils to achieve a Functional Skills Qualification in Mathematics at either Level 1 or Level 2. These qualifications are widely accepted as equal to GCSEs by employers and aim to teach the skills that are needed in daily life and the workplace.
The GCSE course for Years 10 and 11 is designed to provide a broad and coherent course of study that encourages our pupils to develop confidence in, and a positive attitude towards mathematics. Topics are taught in progressively greater depth, building on subject content knowledge that is taught at KS3. Whilst the majority of our pupils are entered for the Foundation Tier, those identified as able, gifted and talented will be entered for the Higher Tier and may be co-taught GCSE Statistics alongside GCSE Mathematics.
Please find our Numeracy Strategy attached here.
Useful Links
At Downland School, mathematics homework is set upon request but pupils are all encouraged to use online resources such as:Mathletics https://www.mathletics.com/uk/