Curriculum Plans: Please click here for the curriculum plan for matthematics
The purpose of the mathematics curriculum at Trumpington Community College is to provide a secure understanding of mathematical concepts, from basic principles of mathematics to complex topics that combine several areas of study into a single question. The curriculum promotes knowledge retention and a depth of learning rather than an accelerated curriculum, resulting in pupils who are confident in taking their studies further into sixth form, university and beyond. We aim to give our students’ the best chance at success in the world beyond secondary school, as well as shaping their thinking for life.
In all year groups, there is an intentional focus on numeracy to support pupils not only in their study of maths but will also enable them to access mathematical questions in other subjects. Above all, we want our students to feel confident in applying maths successfully and without anxiety. We believe all our students can master the concepts and skills in our curriculum, and our job as teachers is to take our students through at the right pace and with the right level of support for them.
Core curriculum principles in the maths curriculum:
Entitlement: All pupils in maths are exposed to extensive number, algebra, geometry, proportion, and statistics content and are not taught on separate pathways until Key Stage 4. This ensures that all pupils can access all areas of maths and have time to develop their skills before limiting their entitlement to Higher maths.
Coherence: Our curriculum has been carefully sequenced to ensure that knowledge is revisited without having a spiral curriculum, and to ensure that classic misconceptions between topic areas are avoided.
Mastery: Mathematical concepts are taught in-depth and continually revisited through careful interleaving of content into future teaching topics. The focus on retention of knowledge is at the core of the maths curriculum; the mastery approach supports this.
Adaptability: Teachers are provided with a fully resourced curriculum that will meet the expectations of the maths curriculum in Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. Teachers are expected to adapt these resources and have autonomy in the way they are delivered in the classroom.
Representation: Maths is universal, providing all pupils with an elegant and logical way of viewing the world. Where our resources include names and places, these have been selected to be inclusive. We believe that a secure understanding of maths is an essential starting point for all young people.
Education with character: Mathematics is a common language in which all pupils can solve, analyse, and problem solve. Our curriculum supports pupils to build logical reasoning, critical thinking and is mentally rigorous.
Key Stage 3
The Key Stage 3 curriculum introduces many of the key skills and concepts that will be required for success in the GCSE course at Key Stage 4. Topics are taught then used frequently in later units: for example, Year 7s work on basic algebraic representation and manipulation, so later topics (such as area, angles, averages etc) can be approached with more advanced algebraic method. The same applies to numerical methods like fractions, negative numbers and rounding. The goal is mastery of critical skills like these, rather than accelerating towards GCSE content. Students are challenged regularly with UKMT-level problem-solving questions once their mastery of the content is achieved.
Key Stage 4
Students work on the EdExcel GCSE syllabus throughout Year 10 and Y11. Our strongest students can study Further Maths (Level 2) and Additional Maths (Level 3). After a rigorous introduction to many of the key algebraic and numerical methods in Key Stage 3, our students will be confident to approach the full range of GCSE content from start to finish. We begin Year 10 with content that is most general (for example, algebraic rearrangement, compound measure calculations, etc) before concluding Year 11 with the content closer to A-Level study (graph transformations, pre-calculus methods, etc).
Useful websites and links
Sparx Maths Homework – trumpington.sparxmaths.uk
GCSE Revision - reviseonline.pearson.com
Progression to University and Careers
We encourage all our students to consider study in mathematics beyond secondary school. Many of our students go on to study A-Level mathematics and then to university. Mathematics is a core skill in many other areas of study and occupations, and we are very conscious of this while we work with our students at the secondary school level.