St Edmund's Catholic School

Mathematics

Intent

The intent of the Saint Edmund’s mathematics curriculum is to develop independent and competent mathematicians who are able to apply their skills in any occupation or activity they choose later in life. We aim to create confidence with numeracy, an ability to make reasoned financial decisions and strive to demonstrate the inherent joy in tackling challenging problems and finding a satisfying solution.

Our curriculum is designed to meet the aims of the national curriculum and help learners:

become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and nonroutine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Implementation

The curriculum is planned and contributed too by all specialist maths teachers in the department. Lessons follow a consistent and successful model based around the principles of our Learning Cycle and contain opportunities for adapted teaching strategies throughout. Series of lessons will be linked together into units and progress will be reflected on and checked against Wilfs throughout. All lessons follow an “I do, we do, you do” structure, with every modelled example followed by a mini-whiteboard activity to check understanding and then independent practice to embed/extend the learning.

Year 7, 8 and 9 follow a spiral style curriculum, starting with the fundamentals before moving to more advanced content, always linked to the appropriate level of ability for the learner. Each term’s curriculum contains catch-up/extension opportunities to give teacher’s flexibility to spend more time delivering a topic if necessary or extend the learning further.

As a department we are interested in the forgetting curve and the research surrounding it, implementing strategies to reduce the deterioration of hard-won knowledge where possible using spaced recall. To this end every lesson begins with a starter challenging recall of the preceding lesson, end of unit consolidations encourage recall of recently taught material, and termly assessments bring recall of the previous 3 months of learning together. Interspersed within these will be homework tasks on the more prominent skills, completed using an electronic platform.

We are a reflective department and organically adapt our delivery overtime; the KS4 and KS3 curriculums are regularly reviewed and lessons/curriculum time adapted based upon pupil performance as we push to maximise the progress of all our learners.

Outcome

Below are the results for the Mathematics GCSE from the last 3 academic years. The table shows the % pass rates for each grade at Saint Edmund’s and nationally.

	Grade	9+	8+	7+	6+	5+	4+	3+	2+	1+
2024	Saint Edmund’s	3.9	14	29.3	46.3	73.8	88.6	94.8	97.8	99.1
2024	National	3.3	9.1	16.8	26.6	42.5	59.6	77.2	89.6	97.5
2023	Saint Edmund’s	3.5	12.1	22.1	34.7	63.8	84.4	93	96.5	99.5
2023	National	3.3	9.5	17.1	27.2	43	60.9	77.2	89.8	97.4
2022	Saint Edmund’s	4.4	16.5	29.1	47.1	76.2	87.9	93.7	97.6	99.5
2022	National	4.4	11.5	19.9	30.6	47.5	64.9	78	90	97.5

However, the results we are most proud of as a department are our progress scores, these show on average how much more progress was made within our school compared to other similar students nationally. A score of 0.5 would mean students did half a grade better with us than students across the country.

Year	Progress Score
2024	+0.64
2023	+0.48
2022	+0.68

Key Stage 3 (Year 7 - 9)

The Saint Edmund’s KS3 curriculum builds upon the excellent teaching and progress students receive from our primary feeder schools. It aims to push the students to achieve above traditional expectations, moving learners who are broadly in line with the age-related expectations to learners who are above age related expectations. We ensure that the entire K3 curriculum is delivered at the appropriate level for each learner. You can see the scheme of work which we follow in the KS3 Curriculum Map.

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Key Stage 4 (Year 10 - 11)

Exam board: Edexcel

Specification: 1MA1

Tiers of entry: Higher and Foundation

Exam: 3 papers, each 33.3% of total grade. 1 paper completed without a calculator, 2 completed with a calculator.

All the content within the specification is covered to the appropriate level of the students, whether they are Foundation or Higher tier students. Typically, the final half-terms of Year 11 are spent using high quality exam preparation resources and supporting revision.

Gcse Specification

The overview of topics taught, beginning in Year 9, can be found below:

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Careers

GCSE Mathematics is a valuable qualification that supports a wide range of career paths. It provides essential skills in problem-solving, logical reasoning, and numerical understanding, which are highly sought after in many professions. Careers in engineering, finance, accountancy, architecture, teaching, and computing all rely heavily on mathematical knowledge. Additionally, roles in the sciences, healthcare, construction, and even the arts often require a solid grasp of maths. Employers across all sectors view GCSE Mathematics as a key indicator of analytical ability and practical thinking.

Extra-curricular Activities

In Maths there are several extra-curricular activities on offer throughout the different year groups.

In Year 11, those students sitting the Higher GCSE paper have the option of attending Further Mathematics after school on Fridays in 309. This club focuses on higher-level questions and more complex problem-solving questions. Students aiming for Grades 8/9 are encouraged to attend to help them become more familiar with this style of question and to stretch themselves further.

High-flying pupils from Year 7 to 9 can also take part in the UK Maths Challenge where they compete with students across the country by completing an online series of mathematical problem-solving questions. Those students who do exceptionally well in the test then get to move on to more advanced stages of the challenge.

Practical Lessons

The Mathematics department at Saint Edmund's includes practical uses of Mathematics when appropriate, some examples are below.

Students in Year 9 studying right-angled triangles spend one of their lessons outside of the classroom learning how to use trigonometry to determine the height of a variety of school buildings and some local buildings.

Taking inspiration from Ezekiel 4:9, a group of students in Year 8 learnt one of the many cross-curricular links in maths. In their first lesson, students learnt to scale a recipe for "Ezekiel Muffins" up and down and how they would scale it for their own needs. In the following lesson, students made use of the iPad to work out where they should purchase the ingredients to ensure they got them for the best value. For the final lesson, students used the food technology room to bake their own Ezekiel muffins, adding their own additional toppings and flavours.

Homework

Sparx - St Edmund's Catholic School (sparxmaths.uk)

In Maths, homework is set every week on a Tuesday at 8am and is due the following Monday at 8am. The expectation is for Years 7 - 10 to spend approximately 30 minutes actively working on the homework each week, whilst those in Year 11 spend approximately 60 minutes actively working on the homework each week to help prepare them for their exams.

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Resources

Students are expected to supply their own calculator and should purchase one before starting at Saint Edmund’s Catholic School. We provide books, homework and all additional resources necessary for the successfully achievement of the learners in our charge.

Mr Barton Maths - Videos and GCSE exam-style questions - GCSE Maths Takeaway Revision on Mr Barton Maths

Corbett Maths - Videos, worksheets and GCSE exam-style questions - Videos and Worksheets – Corbettmaths

Maths Genie - Videos and GCSE exam-style questions - Maths Genie • Learn GCSE Maths for Free

Student comments

"I like Maths at Saint Edmund's because we get a modelled example and then have an opportunity to practice on whiteboards before independent work" - Elsa L

"It supports the way young people learn; having mini-whiteboard breaks helps with a variety of activities and keeps me engaged." - Ishani G