…high quality mathematics education…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.”  

Emma McRae, Making Every Maths Lesson Count 

What are we trying to achieve through our curriculum?

At Corby Technical School, we are committed to creating a rich and carefully sequenced mathematics curriculum in which students develop core knowledge, make connections and communicate mathematically. We want students to have an enjoyment of learning mathematics because the more we know, the more we are able to make reasoned decisions, think logically and solve difficult problems with both efficiency and accuracy.  

It is our responsibility to raise our pupils’ ambition, aspiration and resilience. The Maths department will cultivate this by: 

• Creating a positive working environment that creates success so that all students are motivated and aspirational.  

• Developing confident and knowledgeable mathematicians prepared for the demands of other subjects, further study and future careers. 
• Developing resilient students and making a commitment that there will be no child left behind.   

An ambitious and supportive scheme of work

The mathematics department, consisting of eight teachers, works collaboratively to ensure all students have access to high quality teaching. This is underpinned by a considered and sequenced spiral curriculum, a design in which key concepts are presented frequently throughout the course, but each time with deepening layers of complexity. This is important because mathematics is a hierarchical subject; one that relies on underlying principles as the course progresses. Without the core knowledge, students will struggle to gain greater depth of understanding, problem solve and transfer their learning to other contexts.

The department prioritise and regularly review their approach to teaching and learning. Our lessons are planned to include:

• Explanation & Modelling – Teachers present all new material using a ‘my-turn, your-turn’ approach. Teachers will present clear, precise and mathematical methods and students are then given a similar question to attempt independently.
• Independent Practice – Success in mathematics is dependent on the amount of practice taking place. Students learn challenging content in small incremental steps. After teacher explanations, students will work independently in order to practice this new method/procedure/skill. Retrieving previous information is critical to success in maths. All lessons start with review of previous learning (from last week, last term and even last year).
• Challenge – As students develop confidence with the fundamental core knowledge, we aim to raise the challenge. Students will be given tasks in which they have to apply several topics to solve an unfamiliar problem (interweaving), ‘Same-surface, different depth (SSDD) problems’ that look at questions that seemingly look the same but contain subtleties in the methods and processes needed and goal-free problems.
• Questioning – The department employ a no-hands up questioning strategy. This ensures participation of all students in the lessons and allows teachers to gain greater understanding of students’ progress and confidence. The department use diagnostic questions to gain responses from the whole class at the same time. They use this to have meaningful dialogue in the classroom and to ascertain whether further support or intervention will be needed.
• Feedback – Students complete regular find the gap assessments, which enable both teacher and students to get a snapshot of progress. Teachers mark this work and use it to plan whole class feedback. This is an opportunity to re-teach a particular topic, review misconceptions, developing reasoning or to extend further.

At KS4, students study Edexcel (1MA1) GCSE Mathematics. 

At KS5, students study Edexcel 9MA0 Mathematics (Pure Maths).