Maths

Curriculum

KS3 – WhiteRose for Mastery

Breaking the curriculum into small, manageable steps helps students to understand concepts better. Each block of content in the scheme of work is broken into small steps.  It is not the intention that each small step should last a lesson – some will be a short step within a lesson, some take longer than a lesson.

Mastery demands a deep understanding of a reduced number of topics and students should be challenged to think mathematically through well-planned questioning and intelligent practise that has elements of variation theory.

KS3 Nurture

Classes 7J, 7E, 8J and 9J form our nurture sets and have a different curriculum to mainstream sets.  This is based on KS2 learning objectives as many of these students are not yet ready to access the secondary curriculum.  Lessons are heavily scaffolded and often use concrete manipulatives to support understanding.

By Year 9, students start accessing the learning from the Year 7 and 8 schemes of work.

KS4 – Constant Retrieval

Based on the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, the GCSE is taught in a way that makes students revisit topics several times over the two years.

As with KS3, learning is broken into small steps and teachers will meet students where they currently are, assessing and teaching pre-requisites before tackling new maths.  All classes follow the same curriculum as prior attainment is not always a determining factor of how well a class or individual student will cope learning a particular topic.  Regular retrieval starters add reviews to the forgetting curve to enhance retention further.

In this way, we work towards Edexcel GCSE Maths 1MA1.

KS4 Nurture

Classes Jung and Kac in Year 10 and 11 are our nurture classes.  These students follow the same scheme of work as other sets but also work towards Entry Level Maths in Year 10.

KS5 – A Level Maths, Further Maths and Core Maths

We offer 3 different Level 3 qualifications at The Gryphon School.

Core Maths develops valuable real-life skills, to understand mathematical information and make better informed decisions. It is also designed to support other A Level subjects such as geography, social sciences and business; develops knowledge, confidence and understanding in maths in preparation for university study and, critically, provides useful skills for employment.

A Level Maths is one of the most popular Level 3 courses nationally and is just as popular at The Gryphon School.  Mathematics A Level is a qualification for students who wish to study Mathematics to a higher level or to support other mathematically heavy courses such as Physics, Engineering or Economics and Social Sciences.  People who have studied mathematics are in the fortunate position of having an excellent choice of career. Whilst the number of young people studying A level Mathematics is increasing, there is still a huge demand from science, engineering and manufacturing employers.

Further Mathematics A-Level is a qualification for students with a real passion to study Mathematics at a higher level or to support other mathematically heavy courses such as Physics, Engineering or Economics.  It is one of the most challenging and so one of the most valuable qualifications a student can achieve.

We are lucky to have an excellent, experienced team of teachers who deliver exceptional Level 3 lessons every day!

Feedback and Assessment

We use assessment to inform our teaching, in this lesson or the next.

This takes many forms but can include:

Peer/self-marking

–         All work done in lessons will be marked by either the student or a peer and immediate feedback given to those who have incorrect solutions.

–         Use of RAG cards or other confidence scores will help to identify students who need support.  This then leads into:

Live feedback

–         Maths teachers will have learning conversations with students while they work on a task and intervene live in the lesson.  This also happens through low-stakes quizzes, games and mini-whiteboard tasks that allow for whole-class assessment.

–         Learning conversations happen naturally but teachers make an effort so that every student has regular conversations and feedback like this.

Whole Class Feedback

·        Topic Reflection sheets/exit tickets – The Gryphon Maths department’s method of assessing understanding and identifying misconceptions.

• Written by teachers and stuck in books.
• Students can self/peer mark, correct with purple pen and teachers should write a comment on how to improve.
• Whole-class feedback is given and teachers adapt planning to address gaps/misconceptions.

·        Half term and end of block tests.

• Every half term students will have some form of summative assessment that will cover everything from that half term’s long-term plan and may cover prior content.
• Students on the WhiteRose Scheme of work will have other, block assessments throughout the year.
• These will be graded by the department through moderation, however the primary reason for assessing students is to inform what we do next and plan the learning moving forwards.

Homework

Homework is intended to fulfil some of the following:

–        Encourage learners to be curious about maths.

–        Challenge students to solve a problem independently.

–        Consolidate learning from recent or historic lessons.

–        Engage and excite learners about maths and its applications.

–        And so many other things!

Year 7, 8 and 9

3 homework tasks per half term.

–        1 skills check

–        1 problem solving/literacy homework

–        1 DrFrostMaths revision homework to prepare for a half-term test.

Year 10 and 11

Weekly Dr Frost Maths papers, abridged to suit the individual class.  Whole class feedback on specific question styles/topics.

Once per half-term a physical homework will be set and marked by the teacher.  Whole-class feedback will inform future lessons and retrieval starters.

Year 12 and 13

Weekly homework sheets that are student-marked and, if not completed on OneNote, scanned and saved to their folder.  Teachers to ensure students are completing homework should check these files at least fortnightly.

Every lesson ends with specific textbook questions that need to be done by the students to practise what has been taught in the lesson.

Rewards

Rewards at the Gryphon are based upon Excellence and Community and whilst the criteria for achieving community rewards is standard across the school, the criteria for excellence varies slightly in each department. ‘How to achieve excellence in….’ posters will be on display in every classroom and department.

The Maths Department will award ‘Excellents’ for:

·        Demonstrate Pride in the way you present your maths

·        Showing a desire to improve the way you learn

·        Going above and beyond with your homework

·        Asking great questions when you need to

·        Giving a detailed explanation to the class

·        Showing a consistent willingness to contribute

·        Being a positive team player

·        Persevering with a problem

·        Progress or Excellence in an assessment

·        Participating in maths activities beyond the classroom