Our vision:

 

At SFX we recognise that Maths is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. It is important to our department that all pupils leave SFX with a high-quality mathematics education which provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Please follow the maths department twitter page: @SFXmaths

Curriculum Intent:

As Mathematics is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. The intent of our curriculum in Maths is that our pupils develop skills in problem solving, logic, an ability to recognise maths in the real world. We have constructed a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all learners the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. Our curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment.

Curriculum Implementation:

All teachers in our department have a good knowledge of the subject we teach, teachers present lessons in a clear and engaging manner, promoting appropriate discussion linking to real life examples. The Maths department check learners understanding systematically, identify misconceptions accurately and provide direct feedback. Staff also respond and adapt their teaching when necessary. The Maths department use assessment well to help learners learn more and remember more but also to check understanding and inform future teaching. We believe like Dylan Williams that; “distributive practice is the best skill for curriculum sequencing,” we implement this through our sequencing of lessons but also through weekly low stakes quizzes to assess recall and regularly revisit topics.

Curriculum Impact:

The impact of our curriculum is that our pupils achieve well but feel confident using Maths throughout their lives.

Staff:

Ms A Fitzsimons – Curriculum Leader for Maths/Acting Assistant Headteacher 

Ms N Donaghy – Assistant Curriculum Leader 

Ms V McKenna – Assistant Curriculum Leader

Ms K Arends – Assistant Headteacher

Ms J Costello – Curriculum Leader for Citizenship & PSHE

Mr K Glover – Head of Year 11

Mr D Scally

Mr P Devine

Mr R Jackson

Ms D Hennigan

KS3 Curriculum:

By the end of KS3 Mathematics pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. The programme of study for key stage 3 is organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils should build on key stage 2 and connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They should also apply their mathematical knowledge in science, geography, computing and other subjects.

Decisions about progression are based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content in preparation for key stage 4. Those who are not sufficiently fluent should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.

Year 7 to 9 Maths learning Journey

Year 7 – Term 1

  • standard form
  • rounding to significant figures
  • prime factor decomposition
  • divide a decimal by a decimal
  • area & circumference of a circle
  • solve complex problems regarding the perimeter and area of given shapes
  • interior angles in any regular or irregular polygon

Year 7 – Term 2

  • add and subtract mixed numbers and improper fractions
  • percentage increase or decrease
  • percentage change
  • nth term of a linear sequence
  • factorise expressions
  • expand and simplify multiple single brackets
  • complex BIDMAS calculations

Year 7 – Term 3

  • ratio problems
  • direct and inverse proportion
  • averages from frequency tables
  • two way tables
  • interpret scatter graphs, including correlation, line of best fit

Year 8 – Term 1

  • use the prime factor decomposition to find the HCF or LCM of two numbers
  • index laws for the multiplication and division of integer powers
  • apply BIDMAS to the four operations with negative integers
  • rounding to significant figures to estimate in complex calculations
  • use inequality notation to specify error intervals due to rounding
  • area and perimeter of semi circles and quarter circles
  • find the radius or diameter of a circle when given the circumference or area
  • solve functional problems by finding the area or perimeter of compound shapes including parts of circles
  • volume and surface area of prisms
  • speed, distance and time
  • convert compound units (e.g. m/s to km/h)
  • density, mass and volume
  • pressure, force and area

Year 8 – Term 2

  • all four operations involving improper fractions and mixed numbers
  • find and understand reciprocals
  • interpret Venn diagrams
  • expand the product of two binomials
  • factorise a quadratic expression
  • solve linear equations with one unknown on both sides
  • change the subject of a formula

Year 8 – Term 3

  • compare distributions of grouped, discrete or continuous data using mean, mode, median and range
  • compare distributions of grouped, discrete or continuous data using mean, mode, median and range
  • solve problems using the interior/exterior angles & sides of regular polygons
  • transformations

Year 9 – Term 1: 

  • all four operations with negative numbers
  • fractional and negative indices
  • surds
  • operations with standard form
  • recurring decimals
  • simplifying algebraic fractions
  • investigation of y=mx+c, parallel and perpendicular lines

Year 9 – Term 2: 

  • pythagoras theorem
  • right angled trigonometry
  • volume and surface area of 3D shapes
  • solve simultaneous equations
  • nth of a quadratic sequence

Year 9 – Term 3:

  • simple and compound interest
  • complex problems using direct and inverse proportion
  • construct triangles from SSS information
  • bearings

KS4 Curriculum:

The programme of study for key stage 4 is organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils should develop and consolidate connections across mathematical ideas. They should build on learning from key stage 3 to further develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They should also apply their mathematical knowledge wherever relevant in other subjects and in financial contexts. The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programme of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.

Year 10 & 11 Higher Learning Journey

Year 10 & 11 Foundation Learning Journey

Year 10 Higher Tier – Term 1:

  • complex indices problems
  • nth term of geometric sequences
  • expand double brackets with surds
  • rationalise the denominator of an expression
  • plot graphs of quadratic, cubic and reciprocal functions
  • solve quadratic equations using the quadratic formula, by completing the square and using a graph
  • area of a sector and segment
  • arc length
  • circle theorems

Year 10 Higher Tier – Term 2:

  • congruence criteria for triangles
  • prove two triangles are similar in the context of a problem
  • find conditional probabilities from a Venn diagram
  • complete probability tree diagrams
  • calculate the volume of a cone or frustum involving Pythagoras or similarity
  • calculate the surface area of a cone involving Pythagoras
  • use inequality notation to specify error intervals
  • upper and lower bounds
  • solve speed, distance and time problems regarding a two part journey
  • solve density mass and volume problems involving mixing materials
  • solve two simultaneous equations (one linear, one quadratic) algebraically and graphically

Year 10 Higher Tier – Term 3:

  • histograms
  • construct box plots
  • construct enlargements using fractional and negative scale factors
  • describe the effects of combinations of transformations
  • solve problems using the equation of a circle

Year 10 Foundation Tier – Term 1:

  • estimate roots
  • use rounding to significant figures to estimate in complex calculations
  • use inequality notation to specify simple error intervals due to rounding
  • find the overall percentage change after repeated percentage changes
  • divide into a ratio when given the share or total or when given the difference
  • area of sectors and arc lengths
  • volume and surface area of prisms

Year 10 Foundation Tier – Term 2:

  • solve speed, distance and time problems regarding a two part journey
  • solve density mass and volume problems involving mixing materials
  • reverse a given probability to find possible outcomes
  • calculate expected outcomes of future experiments by applying relative frequency
  • find probabilities from a Venn diagram
  • find the mode, range, median and mean from a discrete or grouped frequency tables

Year 10 Foundation Tier – Term 3:

  • solve complex angle problems using alternate, corresponding and co-interior angles properties
  • construct and measure bearings on diagrams
  • identify and describe which transformation has occurred
  • plot graphs of quadratic, cubic and reciprocal functions
  • identify the equation of a linear graph from the graph
  • find the midpoint of two points and the endpoint when given the midpoint and one endpoint

Below are revision lists for higher, crossover and foundation topics with reference to Hegarty Maths clip numbers:

GCSE Foundation Revision List

GCSE Crossover Revision List

GCSE Higher Revision List

KS5 Curriculum:

A level mathematics builds from GCSE level mathematics and introduces calculus and its applications. It emphasises how mathematical ideas are interconnected and how mathematics can be applied to model situations mathematically using algebra and other representations, to help make sense of data, to understand the physical world and to solve problems in a variety of contexts, including social sciences and business. It prepares students for further study and employment in a wide range of disciplines involving the use of mathematics.

Homework:

Homework in Maths will either be written or via hegarty maths