Key Stage 3

Welcome to the Maths department here at RSA. The aim of our Key Stage 3 years are to promote exploration of the key mathematical concepts that will stand students in good stead for their futures.

In maths lessons at Key Stage 3, students will follow a Mastery curriculum, spending a whole half term on each topic area. This allows students to really explore and dig deep into the Maths that they are learning and establish links between topics as they build their understanding through the years.

In Years 7 and 8, the topics covered are:

Year 7

• Generalised arithmetic
• Order of operations and expressions
• Coordinate geometry and 2D shapes
• Structure of number
• Fractions as numbers
• Probability

Year 8

• Percentages
• Equations
• Geometry of angle and shape
• Ratio
• 3D Solids
• Statistics

Year 9

Throughout year 9 students will continue their journey embedding, developing and extending the mathematical skills that they have acquired during years 7 and 8 and providing them with a solid base from which to extend onto the GCSE maths specification throughout years 10 and 11.

Our maths mastery curriculum is a teaching and learning approach that aims for pupils to develop deep understanding of maths rather than being able to memorise key procedures or resort to rote learning. We aim for students to acquire a deep and long-term understanding of the curriculum and are able to be adaptable because they are secure in their understanding. 

Some topics that have been covered in years 7 and 8 will be given time to be embedded into the minds of the learners, particularly at the start of year 9.

As with years 7 and 8, some GCSE objectives will feature in content taught during year 9.

The half termly overview of concepts is as follows:

• Arithmetic relationships
• The language of algebra
• Linear algebra
• Real life calculations
• Circles and transformations
• Right-angled trigonometry

When students arrive in Year 7, they will be taught in mixed ability tutor groups for the first whole term until after the first Common Assessment. Once results are collated, students will be placed into groups of similar ability students.

Students will complete Common Assessments twice per year and group changes are fluid dependent on the results of those assessments.

In Years 7 and 8, students will receive homework which is set via an online platform, Sparx maths. This platform offers personalised homework designed to improve maths attainment.  Students will also have access to the independent learning section of the website. There will be a minimum of one written homework per half term with the worksheets split up into sections including warmup, workout, exercise and stretch sections. These will focus on work covered in class on the current topic being studied.

In Year 9, students will still have weekly homework set on Sparx maths but will also now receive a weekly written homework booklet. This continues to encourage detailed working out to be shown but now introduces past exam questions with the aim of moving on to KS4. At the end of each topic there will be a short low stakes test.

The highest ability students in each year group will be selected to take part in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge, a national competition combining mathematical ability with logical problem solving. Students who perform particularly well at this challenge could then be invited to take part in follow on rounds.

Key Stage 4

Welcome to the Maths department here at RSA. The aim of our Key Stage 4 years here are to promote excitement and expertise in mathematics. This happens with all levels of ability, with all lessons aiming high and stretching all students.

In maths lessons at Key Stage 4, students will continue to spend a whole half term on a broad topic area, with this topic area being broken down during each block. Students will build on acquired knowledge from Key Stage 3 and will regularly revisit this content through links in lessons or through various do now tasks.

In Year 10, the broad topics covered are:

• Proportion
• Quadratics and inequalities
• Probability
• Geometry and angles
• Statistics

In Year 11, we will finish covering the GCSE content and then move on to building those strong links between topic areas, really homing in on the interleaved nature of mathematics. The broad topic areas are listed below:

• 2D shapes and 3D solids
• Displaying data
• Geometric relationships
• Advanced algebra

Students will remain in sets of similar ability students and will follow either the higher or foundation routes dependent on ability. Students will complete Common Assessments three times per year and group changes are fluid dependent on the results of those assessments.

When students move into Year 10, and to allow for greater links to be established between topics, homeworks are more in depth and a booklet is given to students which covers a whole topic area and could be used for many weeks of homework. For example, one booklet will cover all of the Fractions content and students would be set one or more sections to complete per week. This format then continues throughout year 11. At the end of each topic there will be a short low stakes test. Alongside this students will continue to be set one piece of Sparx maths homework per week as well as being encouraged to use the independent learning section of the platform.

Students from the top set in each year group will be entered for the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge – a nationwide competition to combine mathematical ability with problem solving in different contexts. This is an excellent opportunity for all who are selected to take part.