Mathematics at Catmose College, irrespective of natural ability, is about enjoyment, broadening the concept of mathematics and progress of each individual.
At KS3 level we aim to create a broad, balanced and comprehensive awareness of the subject, relative to everyday life, and its associated applications. The curriculum in year 7 and 8 is designed to overlap with the KS2 syllabus to enable students to develop a mastery of the core skills needed for future success whilst also extending this learning in new directions. To maximise student interest and enable content to be interleaved, students are taught across all branches of mathematics including shape and space, algebra, handling data and number, with a particular emphasis on ratio and proportion to reflect the new focus on this at GCSE level. Using and applying mathematical procedures in context is planned into lessons at every opportunity and we aim to make the importance and value of mathematics apparent to students through our delivery of the KS3 curriculum. Problem solving skills are implemented at the earliest opportunity within each unit of work and the schemes of work include the appropriate balance between extending the new mathematical techniques and the necessary application to problem solving. With a bigger emphasis on linking areas of mathematics together at KS4, the next step in enhancing the curriculum at KS3 is to enable students to experiment with applying their learnt knowledge in an informal way through the implementation of termly investigations. Students will be expected to manipulate problems to make them look familiar so taught procedures can be applied and interpreted. Students will also be expected to display their findings in a concise manner and communicate this to others.
Students start to transition into KS4 study at the start of Y9 and study all overlapping content from both KS3 and KS4 curriculums throughout this year. The teaching at KS4 level does not lose sight of introducing arithmetical knowledge for life, alongside the necessary technical skills for successful examination results and attempting to establish a grounding for post 16 study where appropriate. Whilst studying at GCSE level, pupils are regularly assessed through a range of checkpoint tasks that are linked and differentiated to their ability grouping. Here the subtlety of changes of pace, relative to the foundation and higher candidates is of paramount importance. The more able students are constantly encouraged to study mathematics beyond 16+ and, through the academic scholarship programme, successful candidates are tutored beyond the scope of the KS4 curriculum in preparation for A-level study. All pupils are regularly reminded of the correlation between strong numerical skills and long-term good employment prospects. Throughout the KS4 study students are reminded of the great importance of assimilating facts and committing knowledge to long term memory to enable deep learning to be achieved. To this end, the programme of study has been designed in a cumulative and progressive fashion (from the simple to the complex) to allow students many opportunities to learn, forget, re-visit and consolidate, therefore promoting the long-term retention of mathematics.
Mathematics at Catmose College allows each and every student the appropriate pathway to excel within the subject, whilst aiming to create mathematicians who are:
- fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics.
- able to reason mathematically to justify or prove an argument.
- problem solvers such that students are able to recognise and manipulate a range problems that look. unfamiliar into a set of standard problems where learnt process can be applied.
