Maths and Economics
What is Maths?
Mathematics is a creative and highly interconnected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment.
Why do we teach Maths at HAWI?
A high-quality mathematics education provides students with the powerful academic knowledge necessary to understand the world, to reason mathematically, to appreciate the beauty and power of mathematics, and to create a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject. With a strong mathematical knowledge base, students will open their futures to many careers and be well equipped to enter the wider world.
How do we teach Maths at HAWI?
Our Maths curriculum is built upon the Harris Federation schemes of work and has been designed to be coherent between topics and build on and revisit knowledge learnt previously. It explicitly highlights skills and content students should have learnt in KS2 so students can be challenged further on these skills in KS3 and beyond into KS4. ‘Big Questions’ guide each topic, so students know what powerful maths knowledge is being embedded.
To allow all Mathematics teachers to deliver a rich, challenging curriculum full of opportunities to create a cohort of fantastic mathematicians, PowerPoint lessons have been created and provided as a starting point. These will continue to be developed by all members of the Mathematics department to foster a sense of ownership, teamwork and further pedagogical development. These lessons are designed to give an approach that allows students to develop a powerful knowledge base in concepts rather than simply display superficial success in a single lesson. At the same time, these lessons provide teachers with flexibility to be responsive and adapt their teaching to the needs of their class.
Teachers are expected to be precise in their written and spoken mathematics. This is something that is expected of students too. We challenge all learners to display and communicate using correct terminology to help solidify the meaning of keywords.
Finally, students are generally set into ability groups. This enables teachers to focus on particular content and cover the curriculum in a way that is challenging for similar abilities of students.
How do we make Maths memorable at HAWI?
Alongside Maths lessons, the Maths curriculum at HAWI is comprised of many memorable moments which bring the subject to life. These include: The Count on Us Maths Challenge and UKMT Maths Challenge, both of which prepare selected students for separate national maths competitions; and a trip to the Royal Observatory, where students get to explore Maths in Space. We also offer a Times Table Rock Stars tournament during the year to create a sense of excitement around number skills, and a Recite Pi tournament to challenge our students’ memories!
