Mathematics
Why we teach Mathematics at Harris Academy Purley
Mathematics is for everyone. It is diverse, engaging, and essential in equipping students with the right skills to reach their future destination, whatever that may be. At HAPU, we have adapted our curriculum based on the national curriculum to support and enable our students to engage with, explore, enjoy, and succeed in maths. By putting students at the heart of everything we do, our aim is to ensure that all our students leaving HAPU are numerate and equipped with the fundamental skills to compete effectively on the global market.
Our curriculum is designed with students in mind. We’re committed to ensuring that students are settled early and have the best possible opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of maths, to ensure they achieve the very best results they deserve.
The Harris Academy Purley Schemes of Learning have been written in line with the aims and ethos of the new national curriculum and assessments. This has been an exciting opportunity to re-examine the principals of how we teach mathematics across all key stage groups.
We have designed our curriculum such that it reflects the linear nature of Mathematics with opportunities to revisit and consolidate learning so that concepts are not superficially covered but learnt and understood in greater depth.
The principals we are striving for in terms of the mastery curriculum encompass the five big ideas:
Coherence
Connecting new ideas to concepts that have already been understood, and ensuring that, once understood and mastered, new ideas are used again in next steps of learning, all steps being small steps.
Representation and Structure
Representations used in lessons expose the mathematical structure being taught, the aim being that students can do the maths without recourse to the representation.
Mathematical Thinking
If taught ideas are to be understood deeply, they must not merely be passively received but must be worked on by the student, thought about, reasoned with and discussed with others.
Fluency
Quick and efficient recall of facts and procedures and the flexibility to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics.
Variation
Varying the way a concept is initially presented to students, by giving examples that display a concept as well as those that do not display it. Also, carefully varying practice questions so that mechanical repetition is avoided, and thinking is encouraged.
Finally, we are committed to giving our students the best possible mathematics education so that when they leave us; they can compete with their counterparts from other institutions-whether private or state owned.
What exam board do we follow?
GCSE students will follow the AQA 8300 Mathematics specification.
GCSE Mathematics (Higher and Foundation)
A-Level students will follow the OCR H640 specification.
