At Grateley House School mathematic lessons, provide its pupils with lively, interactive learning experiences fostering their enjoyment of, confidence in, and enthusiasm for mathematics. Mathematics teaches pupils how to make sense of the world around them through developing their ability to calculate, to reason and to solve problems. It enables pupils to understand and appreciate relationships and pattern in both number and space in their everyday lives.
The mathematics curriculum at Grateley House School encourages growing knowledge and understanding, where pupils learn to appreciate the contribution made by many cultures to the development and application of mathematics. It equips pupils with the problem-solving skills that are needed in everyday life. It promotes sound numeracy skills; logical reasoning; attention to detail and helps pupils to understand the world around them. The curriculum encourages creative thinking when pupils are challenged by unfamiliar situations and provides the tools and language to communicate these ideas accurately. At Grateley House School, we endeavour to provide a high-quality mathematics education therefore providing 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.
The curriculum is delivered in the five main areas: number, algebra, ratio, proportion and rates of change, geometry and measures, probability and statistics. The curriculum is designed to be ambitious and individualised, incorporating the pupils EHCP into every lessons and meeting the needs of learners with autism. The curriculum is planned through a logical sequence of lessons, which are re-visited and reflected upon in order to embed the skills into the long-term memory and support application of these learnt skills. The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the curriculum at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress are always be 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. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on. It is through this sequence of lessons that gaps in their knowledge are identified and learning/interventions are put in place to ensure these gaps are filled.
The majority of pupils work towards GCSE mathematics, but functional skills and Entry Level mathematics are offered for those students who are not yet ready to follow the GCSE route. As the decision is often taken at different times throughout the school year, dependant on each student’s performance, they are all working at their own pace within the class. The courses are focused on the skills needed to develop knowledge and understanding and the intent is to prepare the students for progression on to higher qualifications as they reach the point in their schooling that it is appropriate for them to do so. Some students follow the NCFE Maths Qualification Suite if they are unable to access the whole Functional Skills curriculum. This may be due to anxieties around delivering a presentation or because they are unlikely to complete the whole course in the time they have left at Grateley House School.
The impact of the mathematics curriculum aims to provide pupils at Grateley House School with the strategies to apply their knowledge in adulthood, build resilience, have an understanding that we learn from making mistakes and have the qualifications they are capable of, for their next steps in their learning journey.