How's it all adding up in the Maths department?

Head of Maths, Mr Kenrick, has said big advancements have been made in his department – and the results prove it!
 
Mr Kenrick leads the department of six at Priory and he says: “We all work hard and efficiently.  We have a fantastic team here and we work well together. We challenge each other to deliver quality lessons and to improve our own teaching. We also look at what other schools are doing and what courses we can go on to keep moving forward. 
 
“We have reworked our Key Stage 3 scheme using ideas from the Endeavour Learning Trust and the Lancashire Advisor.  We have been on extra courses and Assistant Head of Maths, Mr Henshaw, is completing a three-year Maths Mastery programme. This means we are challenging ourselves and challenging all pupils no matter what level they are at. 

“For the last two years, we have offered a GCSE Further Maths qualification. This helps pupils prepare for A-Level Maths but it has also contributed to better grades in GCSE Maths. 

“We are seeing more Grade 7-9s over the last two years and have better results than a lot of our competitors. 

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“Further Maths is mainly for the high achievers but is open to all higher tier Year 11s - pupils need to be motivated to attend the extra sessions after school.  One example is a pupil who had a target of a grade 5. He got a maths tutor and attended our extra sessions and achieved a Grade 7.” 

There are also plenty of maths clubs to take part in – some virtual at the moment but all designed to test pupils further. 

“We subscribe to the Virtual Maths Club, where new puzzles become available every fortnight. We print them out and use them with all pupils in lessons to encourage them to solve problems.

“We take part in the UKMT Junior and Intermediate Challenge, a national competition which promotes problem solving and teamwork and other mathematical enrichment activities; we help our pupils practice for this. 

“Key Stage 4 pupils can take part in Runshaw College’s Maths Challenge which will stretch and challenge them. All our pupils can be part of the Parallel Club, an online maths enrichment club, where pupils sign up and complete in their own time. It is backed by the author Dr Simon Singh.

“We use Mathswatch, a website with interactive games and ideas, which pupils became more familiar with during lockdown. We now use it for homework as well as for pupil revision - it has instructional videos and self-marking interactive questions. It’s also beneficial for pupils struggling to understand a topic as they can go back and watch a video on it. 

“Maths was very much under the spotlight during the Ofsted inspection in March and I like to think our department firmly played its part in Priory getting a ‘good’ grading.

“We are making an impact and we are on a journey of continuous improvement.” 

Mr Henshaw, Assistant Head of Maths