Maths – Ernesford Grange Community Academy

At Ernesford we believe all students should have the opportunity to appreciate the wonder and power of Mathematics. Mathematics teaches us how to make sense of the world around us through developing a child’s ability to calculate, to reason and to solve problems. It enables children to understand and appreciate relationships and patterns in both number and space in their everyday lives.

To enable this, we believe that we should all work together to provide high quality and wide-ranging learning experiences to all our students.

To assist parents in participating in the learning experiences and home learning, we have set out the following Mathematics curriculum.

Year 7 and 8

Year 7 and 8 students are taught in seven groups which are based on the student’s ability and individual needs. The students will follow a Key Stage 3 curriculum building upon the knowledge and skills developed in primary school over the two years. They will be working towards completing the Key Stage 3 curriculum by the end of Year 8. Year 7 students have four mathematics lessons each week. Year 8 students will have five mathematics lessons each week.

Over the two years students will develop their mathematical skills in five key areas:

Number and Algebra
Geometry and Measures
Statistics and Probability
Using and Applying Mathematics
Ratio and Proportion

The specific topics covered during years 7 and 8 reflect the needs of the student’s individual teaching group, and will build on and extend the work covered in Key Stage 2 and 3. Students will use www.hegartymaths.co.uk at home to not only complete the teacher set homework, but also deepen their understanding of mathematics. Students in years 7 and 8 are set one piece of Hegarty homework per week.

Students are expected to come to lessons with their full equipment, including pens, pencils, a ruler and a scientific calculator.

The progress of all students is constantly monitored and students will have the opportunity to move between the different ability groups depending on their performance.

Year 9 and 10

Students will follow the Linear GCSE course, which will be examined over three papers; one non-calculator and two calculator papers all of which are one hour thirty minutes. There will be two tiers of entry, higher will cover grades 9-4 and foundation 5-1. Both higher and foundation tier students are entered for Edexcel exams. Year 9 and 10 students have 5 mathematics lessons per week with additional intervention in place where appropriate.

Students will study the mathematics in the five key areas of number and algebra, geometry and measures, ratio and proportion, statistics and probability and using and applying Mathematics during their GCSE course.

There will be rigorous progress checks and internal assessments at appropriate points in the course in order to monitor students’ progress towards their target grades.

Further information of the Edexcel linear GCSE course can be found at:-
http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/mathematics-2015.html

Year 11

Students will study for their Mathematics GCSE, which will be examined over three papers, one non-calculator and two calculator papers all of which are one hour thirty minutes. They will revisit and extend content they have previously studied to ensure depth of understanding. There will be two tiers of entry, higher will cover grades 9-4 and foundation 5-1. Year 11 classes will have 5 lessons of mathematics a week. In addition to this there will be a variety of intervention strategies for targeted students.

Students will continue to study the mathematics in the five key areas covered in Key stage 3 and 4, but to a deeper depth in year 11. There will be rigorous progress checks and internal assessments at appropriate points in the course in order to monitor students’ progress towards their target grades.

Further information of the Edexcel linear GCSE course can be found at:-http://qualifications.pearson.com/content/demo/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/mathematics-a-2015.html

Post-16 - A-Level Mathematics

The course consists of Pure Mathematics (two thirds) and Applied Mathematics (the remaining third). The Pure Mathematics covers topics which follow directly from GCSE; for example, quadratics, functions, coordinate geometry, trigonometry and sequences. It also introduces new topics such as calculus and series. The Applied Mathematics module comprise Mechanics and Statistics. Each is equally weighted. Students will become adept at working with graphical calculators and will be exposed to large real-life data sets.

The units have been designed to encourage candidates to:

Develop their understanding of mathematics and mathematical processes in a way that promotes confidence and fosters enjoyment
Develop abilities to reason logically and recognise incorrect reasoning, to generalise and to extend their range of mathematical skills and techniques and use them in more difficult, unstructured problems
Recognise how a situation may be represented mathematically and understand the relationship between ‘real-world’ problems and standard models, as well as other mathematical models and how these can be refined and improved
Acquire the skills needed to use technology such as calculators and computers effectively, recognise when such use may be inappropriate and be aware of limitations
Develop an awareness of the relevance of mathematics to other fields of study, to the world of work and to society in general
Take increasing responsibility for their own learning and the evaluation of their own mathematical development.

Students sit three examinations at the end of Year 13.  The three papers are equally weighted.

Minimum Requirement from GCSE – Grade 7