Maths
Overview
At The Ashley School Academy Trust we believe all our pupils should have the opportunity to have hands on experiences which will provide them with a greater understanding of ‘real world’ maths. This makes learning more accessible, engaging and relevant to real life. All learners should leave TASAT with external maths accreditation, preparing them for their future pathway.
We teach in a way that provides context for our pupils and will help them cope with functional, every day mathematics when they leave us. Teaching maths here is based on the idea that our pupils have access to and work with practical objects to support their understanding, moving on to be able to use pictorial representations to help them solve problems before moving on to more abstract concepts and problems. We believe that solid consolidation is essential before we accelerate our pupils. We work hard to place an emphasis on developing fluency, mathematical reasoning and problem solving throughout our curriculum to create well rounded maths learners.
Both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 pupils follow our own personalised curriculum, built on the foundations of the national curriculum. This means we cover topics such as number and place value, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, properties of shape including position and direction, measure and statistics.
As a school, we subscribe to White Rose maths and teaching staff have access to White Rose maths resources, which support our personalised curriculum. We also advise and support the use of the White Rose maths app, ‘1-minute maths’ as an extended learning opportunity.
Maths in Key Stage 2
The Key Stage 2 curriculum focuses on using and applying mathematics, counting and using number, calculating, understanding shape, measuring and statistics.
Many pupils working in Key Stage 2 are working within 'P' Levels. Pupils follow a multi-sensory approach to maths. We regularly provide them with opportunities to explore mathematical topics such as time, shape, number and measure through books, toys, props, scents, sounds and musical cues. In every maths lesson there are opportunities for pupils to use a range of maths manipulatives (Straws, Unifix, Base ten etc.) best suited to individual needs.
Maths in Key Stage 3
At Key Stage 3 maths lessons cover the separate strands of mathematics curriculum. These comprise: number and place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, geometry (position and direction and properties of shape) and statistics.
Pupils work individually and in small groups on suitably differentiated activities using a variety of resources. Activities practice numeracy skills, problem solving investigations and functional maths in the real world. Pupils work with and without the use of calculators.
A variety of maths manipulatives (Base ten, Unifix etc.) are available to support pupils' understanding of number and the number system. Lesson starters encourage the sharing of knowledge and help develop mathematical vocabulary and skills. Pupils are continually assessed through teacher observation, peer and self-assessment, pupil presentations, tests and mathematical tasks in their exercise books or through the use of ICT (including iPads). Pupils are assessed against the national curriculum using our TASAT embedded Learning Stages for Mathematics.
Maths in Key Stage 4
In Key Stage 4 we currently offer a range of accredited programmes of study. All pupils work towards AQA Entry Level Certificate in Mathematics and we offer GCSE Mathematics if deemed appropriate for a small cohort of pupils. We continually review the qualifications we offer to ensure that the most appropriate outcomes are achieved for our pupils, to correctly equip them for their next steps in education.
Our Entry Level qualification prepares our pupils well for their future pathway and life after TASAT. Pupils work hard to complete eight different components, each followed by an assessment.
The eight components focus on the following areas:
Component 1: properties of number
Component 2: the four operations (no calculator allowed)
Component 3: ratio
Component 4: money
Component 5: the calendar and time
Component 6: measures
Component 7: geometry
Component 8: statistics
Pupils are encouraged to work independently at times to help develop their investigation skills. Pupils work individually and in small groups on suitably differentiated activities using a variety of resources. Lesson starters encourage the sharing of knowledge and help develop mathematical vocabulary and skills. Pupils are assessed through teacher observation, peer and self-assessment, presentations, entry level component tests and mathematical tasks in their exercise books or through the use of ICT.
Useful Links
As part of our maths curriculum, we subscribe to several services where pupils in all key stages have their own personal log-ins. This enables targeted revision on areas of maths pupils are finding more challenging. Please find details of these log-ins in pupil planners.
Maths Interventions
We deliver maths intervention three times a week to identified pupils through a specially trained LSA. These sessions are often 1:1 or small group sessions, lasting 30 minutes.
We follow 1stClass@Number1 intervention programme to support our Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils to enable them to achieve an Entry Level qualification in mathematics.