At Haute Vallée, our focus is on creating a positive and resilient attitude towards the learning of Maths; where students have the attitude of maybe ‘I can’t yet,’ rather than ‘I cannot.’ The aim is for all students to meet the requirements of The National Curriculum which state’s that ‘Teachers should develop pupils’ numeracy and mathematical reasoning in all subjects so that they understand and appreciate the importance of mathematics’ and, equally important, to make this an engaging and meaningful learning experience.
The curriculum is designed to be inclusive, providing all students with opportunities to develop their critical thinking skills; especially in being able to analyse, make inferences and interpretation, and evaluate, as they solve maths problems.
In order to make maths more focused, we work closely with the Science, IT, Business, and Design Technology departments, to integrate mathematical concepts into these lessons to make learning more real-world focused (e.g., project-based learning).
We aim to provide a solid foundation in maths numeracy that enables all students at Haute Vallée to leave as confident individuals with a IGCSE mathematics qualification, enabling them to achieve their future goals.
Our Maths curriculum is split into a two-year scheme for year 7 and 8, and a three-year GCSE scheme for years 9-11. Schemes of learning and assessments are written and regularly reviewed by the department to ensure that all lessons are pedagogically well designed and differentiated. Teachers in the Maths department plan collaboratively to structure lessons with a focus on the elements of outstanding lessons The schemes of work identify skills that build on what has been taught previously, and topics that will need to be delivered again. At the start of every lesson the WALT and success criteria are shared with students, so they are fully aware of what they need to achieve to meet the lesson objectives and make progress in their learning. This is something that is used in every year 7 Maths lesson, and we are starting to embed it into all Maths lessons so that it is consistent for the students.
The instructional methods used are analysed and evaluated in department meetings, where we share examples of effective practices, and the learning resources produced. This creates a ‘community of practice,’ whereby we can make maths lessons more effective, efficient and engaging, as well as making our work more cost-effective. For example, we access and use a range of online resources, customize them to our learning context, and share them collaboratively.
This year we have started an open-door policy in the Maths department and have discovered that it is highly beneficial to find time to see each other teach, as we can learn from observing different teaching styles and methods for particular topics. In the future, this is something we want to be able to do with other departments and, in the longer term, this can be a vehicle for whole school sharing and enhanced professional development.
In Maths we set the students initially on their Maths quantitative CATs score and then after the first initial assessment we allow for movement between the sets. In year 7, by following the same scheme of work, this allows teachers to monitor and adapt when needed. During lessons we encourage students to work together and engage in discussion of maths problems to develop their analytical skills and build collaboration in learning. This helps students to develop their resilience and confidence in dealing with the learning of more challenging mathematical concepts.
