Holt Lane WokinghamBerkshire RG41 1EETelephone: 0118 978 0165Facsimile: 0118 989 0831holtschool@holt.wokingham.sch.uk

www.holtschool.co.ukHeadteacher Miss Suzanne Richards M.Ed.

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September 2013

Dear Parent/Guardian

Re: Year 7 Mathematics

I am writing to tell you about an exciting new approach to teaching maths that we are introducing this year. The school have committed to the “Mathematics Mastery Programme” for all year 7 students This letter will explain why we decided to embark on the programme, its aims and how it will benefit your daughter.

Through discussions with students, parents and staff it is clear that many students appear to be less confident in Mathematics compared to other subjects and girls in school are far more likely to say ‘I can’t do maths’ rather than ‘I can’t read’ or ‘I can’t write’. This mind-set has concerned us for a number of years and so we have implemented strategies to try and change this attitude; our staff speak positively about maths, we hold ‘can do maths’ assemblies and even have interesting mathematical concepts on the backs of our toilet doors! This year the maths faculty achieved their best ever results with 88% of students achieving a C grade or above at GCSE and the number of girls taking A level maths tripling in three years so the strategies have had an impact but we want to do even better. We want every girl to say “I can do maths” and achieve a high pass at GCSE.

So when we heard about this new approach we were very keen to become involved and six months ago we successfully applied to be a pilot school for the Mathematics Mastery Programme, created by The ARK Schools network, an educational charity which runs a number of good or outstanding schools in inner cities in the UK (http://www.arkschools.org/our-approach).

The ARK schools network designed and implemented the Mathematics Mastery Programme using research findings and evidence as well as drawing on best practice nationally and internationally. The key principles of the programme are

• Students study fewer topics in greater depth• Mastery for all students• Number sense and place value come first• Problem solving is central.

The vision of the Mathematics Mastery network is:

“Mathematics education should be so much more than just passing exams and Mathematics Mastery will help us achieve this. We want every child to not just pass GCSE mathematics but pass with top grades and to leave school with a love of mathematics. ”

Basically the Mathematics Mastery community want every school leaver to achieve a strong foundation in mathematics, with no student left behind. In addition, Mathematics Mastery means that

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a significant proportion of students will be in a position to choose, if they so wish, to study A level and degree level science, technology, engineering and mathematics related subjects.

Your daughter will have six lessons a fortnight and the Mathematics Mastery curriculum has problem solving at the heart, encouraging the use of mathematical language to promote accurate explanations and justification. Achieving mathematics mastery is through depth of understanding as opposed to covering lots of topics more superficially.

Mathematics lessons will be made up of a ‘Do Now’ task which your daughter will do on her own as the teacher takes the register and will be based on learning from previous lessons or concepts learnt at primary school. Then there will be new learning, where the teacher will explain a concept followed by a ‘talk task’ which will encourage your daughter to develop her mathematical curiosity and language. There will be exercises to develop her learning of a particular concept and this will involve a mixture of group work, individual learning or paired work and finally there will be a plenary which should reflect on the learning that has gone on in the lesson. To aid your daughter’s sense of discovery and to encourage problem solving we will be using manipulatives in all our lessons. You may have used them when you were in school – they include bead strings, Dienes blocks, Fraction counters, Cuisenaire rods, 100 grids, number lines and multilink cubes. The use of manipulatives coupled with a constant focus on problem solving will mean that students are much more able to understand mathematical concepts.

The topics covered in Year 7 are as follows

Half Term Topics AssessmentAutumn 1

Number sense

Integer place valueRound and estimateAdd and subtractWord problemsDecimal numbersDecimal place valueFind perimeter

Module 1 Pre-learning assessment (Sept)Module 2 Post -learning assessment (Oct)

Autumn 2

Multiplication and division

Multiple, LCMMultiplicationMultiplication of decimalsRectangle and triangle area Factor, HCFDivisionMean average(Investigation)

Module 3 Pre-learning assessment (Nov)Module 4 Post -learning assessment (Dec)

Termly assessment paper

Spring 1

Angle and line properties

Estimate measuresRead scalesDraw, measure and name anglesAngle typesTrianglesQuadrilaterals(Investigation)

Module 5 Pre-learning assessment (Jan)Module 6 Post -learning assessment (Feb)

Spring 2

Fractions

Fractions as numbers, fractions as operatorsEquivalent fractionsCompare and order fractionsMultiplicative relationships with fractionsFraction of a quantityMultiply and divide fractions

Module 7 Pre-learning assessment (March)Module 8 Post -learning assessment (April)

Termly assessment paper

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Summer 1

Algebraic representations

Order of operationsSymbolic notationSubstitute and simplify

Module 9 Pre-learning assessment (April)Module 10 Post -learning assessment (May))

Summer 2

Percentages and pie charts

Interpret pie chartsConvert fractions, decimals and percentagesPercentage of a quantity(Investigations)

Module 11 Pre-learning assessment ( June)Module 12 Post -learning assessment (July)

Termly assessment paper

The assessment schedule will enable your daughter’s teacher to monitor her progress continuously and testing is just one method. In every lesson, teachers will be assessing what students do or do not understand and will deal with misconceptions immediately. Moreover, all our students will be appropriately challenged; tasks are rich and investigative and will challenge your daughter to think mathematically.

It is important that you are aware that there may be the possibility that your daughter will not appear to make as much progress if the national curriculum sub levels are used to measure progress, as this measure needs the student to cover a greater number of topics but in less depth. However the research shows that students who have followed the mastery curriculum will make rapid progress through the national curriculum levels in subsequent years as they have such a good foundation in mathematical concepts, language and in mathematical thinking.

To sum up, the mastery curriculum is designed so that students explore mathematical ideas in depth. The emphasis on number in Year 7 is to ensure that every girl has a strong understanding of the basic mathematical concepts, creating a solid tool bank for them to call upon throughout their mathematics career. Tasks are structured to support and stretch students, challenging their mathematical thinking at all stages. Home learning will be set twice a week to consolidate her learning in the classroom.

We will evaluate how the curriculum is viewed by staff, parents and students in the spring term when I will send you a questionnaire.

If you have any questions about the Mathematics mastery curriculum please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Tearle, the Head of Mathematics Faculty tl@holt.wokingham.sch.uk

We look forward to working with you to ensure your daughter develops a love of mathematics as well as achieving the highest grade at GCSE.

Yours sincerely

Anne KennedyDeputy Headteacher