Weobley High – Mathematics
Weobley’s Mathematics department is fully committed to student achievement 
and looks forward to supporting you through your education at the school and ensuring you achieve examination results of which you can be proud.
We are continuously developing and individualising the curriculum to meet each student’s needs and maximize their achievement. We set challenging targets for our students and monitor their progress regularly.
Key Stage 3
Students in Years 7 and 8 have three hours of maths per week with 4 hours in year 9. Students study topics under the headings of Number, Algebra, Ratio, Geometry and measures, Probability and Statistics and are taught in groups set by ability. Our focus is on developing fluency, reasoning and problem solving in line with National Curriculum expectations.
In addition our department offers pupils the opportunity to carry out maths investigations once a term to deepen their understanding of mathematics and develop their skills in using and applying their knowledge. Pupils will also complete a Data Handling Project each summer term so that they can apply their knowledge of Statistics to solving a real life hypothesis.
Key Stage 4
At Key Stage Four all students study Edexcel linear GSCE Mathematics at either Foundation (grades 1-5) or Higher (grades 4-9) depending on their ability. Students who show a strong aptitude for both Mathematics and English may be put into an Express group at KS4, in which case they will have the opportunity to study for the very highest grades.
How can I help my child do better at maths
These are some of the ways you can help your child.
- Involve your child in everyday maths, such as telling the time, working out change in a shop, calculating quantities for a recipe, playing board games – anything and everything that helps them practise their mental maths skills.
- Use the internet. All of our pupils are given a password to use the MyMaths website. There are other useful sites available, some of which are listed here
- My Maths
- BBC GCSE Bitesize Maths
- BBC KS3 Bitesize Maths
- Mr Barton Maths
- Maths Genie
- Corbett Maths
- OnMaths
- How to help your child engage in mathematics and numeracy
- Come and talk to us. If you have any concerns or questions about your child’s maths come and see us at one of the parent surgery evenings – we will be happy to help.
The Subject Leader is Mr D Dwyer, to whom all queries regarding Mathematics at Weobley should be made.
Intent
For effective teaching and learning to take place it is essential that pupils enjoy their work and see its relevance to real life. Therefore, fundamental to the mathematics curriculum is the hope that it will encourage and motivate interest and enable pupils to gain pleasure from mathematical activities and see their application in all aspects of life.
Topics are sequenced to provide logical progression through the curriculum in a “spiral” formation, providing opportunities to revisit and consolidate concepts before building further layers of understanding as students move up the school. The sequence has been carefully checked to ensure prerequisite skills are taught before they are needed to be applied in a new context.
Virtually all students will sit GCSE Mathematics at the end of year 11 and so key to our curriculum intent is ensuring that students are fully prepared for this, at an appropriate tier of entry to their ability. The GCSE qualification prepares students for progression to further study of mathematics at AS and A level, and to the study of Core Mathematics. In addition, GCSE Mathematics is a requirement for progression to a wide range of other courses at Level 3. Students are expected to continue with their study of mathematics after the age of 16 if they have not achieved the qualification at Key Stage 4 at grade 4 or better.
Transferable skills enable young people to face the demands of further and higher education, as well as the demands of the workplace, and are integral in the teaching and learning of this qualification.
Implementation
The KS3 National Curriculum and the Pearson Edexcel Mathematics GCSE syllabus make up our lists of key knowledge, which we have translated into a coherent scheme of work specific to Weobley maths. The scheme of work is intended for use as a working document and staff are continuously developing the curriculum and the lessons, taking into account new materials and resources to better aid pupil progress. Ideas are shared at departmental meetings, which are held regularly, in line with the whole school meetings cycle.
Investigations and problem solving
Problem solving activities are regularly used as a means of introducing and/or consolidating work across all areas of the curriculum with each lesson providing an opportunity to solve a problem in some form.
At Key Stage 3 pupils are expected to complete at least one extended investigation each term. These provide opportunities to explicitly teach the specific skills involved in mathematical investigations, as well as encourage an increasing degree of independence, develop functional skills and help prepare students for the rigours of the GCSE exam. Tasks are set across the whole year group providing the department with the opportunity to moderate marking and discuss good practice as well as track the progress of entire year groups through common assessment. Students enjoy participating in the same task as their peers, irrespective of level of ability.
At Key Stage 4 pupils may complete at least one extended investigation over the five terms, time permitting, probably in the summer term as indicated in the scheme of work.
Functional Maths
A key element of GCSE Maths involves the following functional processes:
- Representing.
- Analysing.
- Interpreting and evaluating.
- Communicating and Reflecting.
Whilst we are already addressing these processes through the problem solving and investigational activities that are going on all the time in the classroom, we recognise a need to adopt a more structured approach towards teaching these skills.
All pupils in years 7 to 10 complete two functional activities each term. These need not last more than one lesson and may be sourced from the following resource banks:
- Bowland Assessment materials (access through Bowland website).
- Nuffield 20 Applying Mathematical Processes activities – these are in a Functional folder in the Shared Area.
- MyMaths Functional Activities.
- Activities throughout the Oxford text books
- Other web-based resources or those devised within the department.
KS3 Projects
The Maths department has developed and formalised its use of project work, introducing biannual projects at KS3 to address all six of the PLTS strands (soft skills):
- Team workers
- Self-managers
- Effective participators
- Independent enquirers
- Creative thinkers
- Reflective learners.
The project themes are specified in the scheme and last between 3-5 hours. They are approached by pupils working on a common theme, in small groups. Each year-group work on a project at the same time, to encourage participation and discussion across teaching groups. The level of support/teacher-input will vary according to the ability level of the group and the nature of the task, but in order to fully address the spirit of the PLTS pupils should be left to make as many decisions for themselves as possible.
Extra curricular
The department offers many enrichment opportunities for all pupils to develop skills and enjoy maths outside of the usual classroom timetable. These include: Mathletics, London residential trip and after-school revision sessions for Year 11. Our more able mathematicians are given regular opportunities to enrich their learning through participation in challenges and team events both within school and through off site trips.
Impact
We assess the impact of our curriculum in three main ways:
- Regular, day to day, classroom-based assessment. The teacher judges progress and identifies misconceptions every lesson through oral and written feedback, listening and observation (AfL) and regular use of exit tickets. These observations are supplemented by the monitoring of homework exercises and by marking exercise books. In addition, mini tests are used at the end of each topic – informal, low-status assessments providing another snapshot of pupil progress. Mini tests should be marked by self or peer assessment and used as a vehicle for self-review/target setting.
- More formal medium-term assessment, aiming to review progress against specific objectives. These take the form of a termly test based on the skills/knowledge taught in the previous 3 months (roughly). Marks are recorded as a percentage to enable comparisons to be made across classes, year groups and from cohort to cohort.
- Annual examinations provide more holistic feedback on a student’s mathematical capability.
We measure the impact of our curriculum in a variety of ways including:
- Learning walks/lesson observations and professional dialogue with teachers.
- Book Monitoring.
- Pupil engagement and teacher feedback.
- Conversations with pupils and parents.
- Improved subject vocabulary.
- Pupil and teacher progress tracking.
- Attainment and achievement outcomes.
- Evidence of wider cultural and intellectual enrichment.
Achievements are well celebrated with housepoints, postcards or emails home and, at KS4, a termly raffle draw in assembly. This creates an atmosphere of success and high aspirations within the department.