Teaching Staff

• R Graham (Director of Learning)
• R Glen
• S Binns
• P McArdle
• M Brown
• A Curtis
• R Coy
• M Saunders
• C Butters
• V Ward

Curriculum Intent for Mathematics

At King James I Academy, the Mathematics department’s intent is for the curriculum to be designed to ensure that students acquire a deep, long-term, secure, and flexible understanding of the subject. The curriculum will:

•  Develop students’ ability to reason mathematically

• Enable students to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics through frequent and varied practice with increasingly complex problems over time such that they will develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply their knowledge speedily and accurately

• Allow students to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including reducing problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions whilst appreciating various methods may be applicable

• Help students to develop an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics and have a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject

• Enable students to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, testing hypotheses, and developing an argument, justification or proof using appropriate mathematical language

Department Information

What types of skills do employers look for? Problem solving, statistical analysis, proportional reasoning, and good communication skills, to name just a few. These transferable skills are useful in any job, and you can get all of them from studying Maths.

Maths is studied by all students until the completion of Year 11. Success in Mathematics is a key component to future career success with most employers now requiring a minimum of a GCSE Grade 4. Teachers in the Maths Department believe that all students are mathematically able and work to support our students in becoming numerically literate.

Students at King James I Academy are taught in ability groupings, which allows us to tailor their learning experience to their current stage of mathematical development. Following each assessment period the classes are reviewed and amended as needed in order to challenge and support our students in a way that will best suits their needs.

Our curriculum is designed to build upon prior learning established at primary school, to support their progression in becoming mathematically fluent, and to further their ability to reason logically and solve problems in a wide range of situations. Some of more able students are invited to take part in the United Kingdom Mathematical Trust’s individual and team challenges, attend Christmas Lectures at local universities, and compete in regional maths competitions.

Key Stage 4

AQA GCSE Mathematics (1-9)

Paper 1: Non-Calculator – 80 marks                                           1/3 of final grade

Paper 2: Calculator – 80 marks                                                    1/3 of final grade

Paper 3: Calculator – 80 marks                                                    1/3 of final grade

Students will be following either the Higher pathway (Grades 4 to 9) or the Foundation pathway (Grades 1 to 5) depending on their set. All students will study topics from the main areas of Mathematics – Number, Algebra, Geometry, Ratio and Proportion, and Statistics. GCSE Mathematics is 100% assessed by exams in the summer series of Year 11.

Targeted intervention sessions begin in Year 10 during our Period 6 enrichment sessions and allow us to use our Personalised Learning Checklists to tailor intervention to their specific areas of development.  Our Grade 5 students attend annual revision conferences to improve their confidence and understanding of Grade 5 topics. Students aiming for the top GCSE grades in Mathematics attend a weekly after school class working on deepening their reasoning and problem solving skills on Grade 8 and 9 topic areas. Finally, our more able pupils in Year 10 attend the Christmas Lectures at local universities and compete in the AMSP’s annual Maths Feast.

Year 10

Foundation tier students build upon their KS3 work and begin to cultivate an understanding of Grade 5 topics including simultaneous equations, trigonometry, probability tree diagrams, and standard form.

Higher tier students demonstrate their fluency of key skills previously secured at KS3 and begin to work on Grade 5+ topic areas such as expanding two or more binomials, nth term of quadratic sequences, probabilities from Venn diagrams.

Year 11

All students continue to apply their content knowledge from Year 10 and build upon it. Algebra and proportional reasoning become ever more important in the lead up to their final exams. Students will hone their skills and apply their knowledge through a series of mock exams and regular use of past papers in order to ensure they are fully prepared for their GCSE Mathematics exams in the summer series.

Foundation tier (Grade 1 to 5)

Higher Tier (Grades 4 to 9)

Learning Journeys

Higher Mathematics

Foundation Mathematics