Curriculum Implementation

Our curriculum aims are to develop strong academic outcomes through evidence based effective Teaching Strategies such as:

The Mathematics department places great value in considering current research into how students learn best and thrive in the subject. We are basing a lot of our work this year on a training session which we had with Mr Barton. Students can expect to be using the following techniques in lessons:

• Same Surface, Different Deep – A set of four questions based around a single piece of information. This could, for example, be a picture of a shape where the pupils could be asked to find area, perimeter, angles etc. This is training the students to recognise the need for a wide variety of skills and how to choose the correct one given the specific question.

• Low Stakes Quizzes – Students are sitting regular quizzes based on topics which they have done over the last few months. The spacing out of these topics in the quiz is helping the students with their retention of knowledge. It is also supporting the students to prepare for being tested in more formal assessments by giving them practice in less stressful situations.

Goal Free Problems – Questions where the ultimate goal of the question has been removed with the students being encouraged to write any relevant mathematical facts that they can about the situation given. This encourages students to try something when faced with longer questions on exams which can look quite daunting.

All of these things are helping us to achieve our vision of getting our students to think like mathematicians.