Mathematics

Teachers in the Department

Mr L Sharp - Head of Department and a House Master.

Mr M D Wood - Deputy Director of Studies and a House Master

Mrs G M Brown - Vice Principal.

Miss J F Smith - Director of Further Education and Deputy Head of Sixth Form.

Mr A T R Rodgers - KS3 Coordinator and I/c Maths ICT, U15 Rugby Coach , I/c Debating.

Mrs B M Beardwood - Part Time, I/c Maths Support Years 7 and 8 and assists with Duke of Edinburgh Award/Outdoor Pursuits.

Mrs J Walsh - Head of Girls Games.

Mr B Holt - Part Time.

Mathematics Curriculum Years 7-11

• The pupils study the Key Maths Text Books leading to GCSE with the EDEXCEL examination board. (Specification 1387 Linear/2540 from September 2006).
• This course requires two pieces of coursework, worth 20%, and these tasks are done during Year 11. (No course work after June 2008).
• The course actually spirals so that most topics are taught several times until GCSE. This gives the teachers the chance to ensure topics are fully understood.
• Year 7 pupils are initially taught in their forms before setting from Key Maths 7².
• Calculators are not allowed in Year 7 but introduced in Year 8.
• A fair amount of Year 7 is consolidation of work from the primary schools and ensuring all the pupils understand the basics.
• Year 7's are tested in the first term and along with their KS2 result, their MIDYIS score, CAT score and work in class and at home are then placed into 5 sets.
• The lowest set is made much smaller so that individual pupils have much more contact time with their teacher. (usually 10-12 students).
• This set is taken by Mrs Beardwood who is an expert in maths support and uses a whole array of resources and methods to help the students maximise sucess.  
• There are regular across the year tests and, along with the end of year exam and a consideration of the year's work, the pupils are then reset.
• In year 8 the lower ability groups study from the Key Maths 8² book or the Key Maths 8 book. These cover similar material as the 8³ book but go at an easier pace.
• This continues in Year 9 with books 9,  9² and 9³.
• The setting procedure continues to GCSE and for the next 4 years (2008,09,10,11) the majority of students will sit the Higher Level GCSE with only a few candidates taking the Foundation Level. 
• In Year 10 the students start the Key Maths Higher book if in sets 1, 2 and 3 for the two years to GCSE. Those in set 4 follow the Key Maths Intermediate 1 book and move on to the Intermediate 2 book in Year 11. The intermediate Level exam was withdrawn in 2007 but these books allow the students to work towards grade B, they can access a large part of the Higher Level papers but concentrate much more on the basics at grades E,D and C essential to passing GCSE with grade C or higher.
• In all years there are across the year tests after every couple of chapters.
• These tests are set to check the pupils' progress and to see whether the setting policy is correct.
• Pupils who do well during the year and who deserve to move up a set are given the option. Not all of them take it because some feel happier at the top of a lower set.

• The higher sets work at a considerably faster pace and often touch on extension work from AS level or from off the syllabus.
• The Year11's start by doing Intermediate Past Paper tests across the year in September of Year 11 before the higher sets quickly move on to Higher Level Papers nearer the January Mocks.
• The final decision about entry level is taken after the mock exam.
• ICT is taught as part of the maths curriculum in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 with topics like spreadsheets, "Geometer's Sketchpad" and "Graphmatica".
• ICT is used whenever it assists the topic being taught and is used extensively for the statistics coursework in Year 11.
• The gifted students from Years 7 and 8 sit the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge, Years 9 and 10 the Intermediate and Years 11, L6 and U6 sit the Senior.
• The department strive for 100% pass rate at GCSE grades A* - C.
  In the summer of 2004 this was achieved and in 2005, 2006 and 2007 only one pupil recorded grade D in each year.
• Excluding Sports Science, Chinese (2 candidates) and Polish (1 candidate) maths achieved the highest average points per student at GCSE in the summer of 2005.
• The maths department value added figure was recently 1.0 grades. As many students reach their target grade of A* or A this interprets that some pupils score far higher than expected, invariably in the lower sets.
• Lunchtime help sessions, breakfast club revision sessions on the morning of the exams and sometimes holidays are used to maximise pupils' potential.
• Roughly one third of the Year 11's go on to study Maths at AS level with a few doing Further Maths as well.