South Axholme Academy
MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT
The Mathematics department is mainly housed in a suite of rooms all on the same floor and
equipped with ‘Smartboards’. Most of the teaching is timetabled within the seven specialist
rooms and their close proximity allows staff to work very closely together, supporting each
other and sharing good practice. There are seven full time members of the department, one
part time teacher and a specialist Mathematics Teaching Assistant.
In Years 7 and 8, students are set according to their ability. Students are set on entry using
information provided by our feeder primaries. Movement between sets is possible and is
reviewed on a regular basis throughout the academic year.
The current Key Stage 3 scheme of work is based around the Collins Maths Frameworking
3rd edition text books which address the new national curriculum and is supplemented with
teacher resources. Progress is now to be monitored through the use of regular topic tests so
that specific issues can be addressed more quickly in order to improve mastery of the topic.
Independent home learning tasks are given weekly and alternate between on-line Mymaths
and written tasks.
Key Stage 4 runs from Year 9 to Year 11 and students continue to be set across the year
group.
During Key Stage 4 our top sets (up to 4 of them) in this final year of the old specifications
will follow the Edexcel Linear Mathematics (Specification A) course and the remaining sets
will follow the OCR Linear examination J567 (the remaining 4 sets). Using these two
specifications the department were highly delighted to achieve 81% A*-C grades with our
classes of 2015. We have already started the 3 year route map with our present Year 10
groups as we embark on the AQA 8300 specification for GCSE 2017. The department
places a high priority on achieving excellent exam results, irrespective of tier of entry, and
results over the past five years have shown a significant upward trend. The main challenge
for the department is now to maintain this standard and improve the grade quality of all
students. In October 2014, the mathematics department were the focus of an HMI Subject
Inspection, the outcome of which was extremely pleasing with the department being graded
as good with outstanding potential.
Students in set 1 presently take the AQA Level 2 Certificate in Further Maths to stretch them
and encourage students to take A Level Maths. We also offer the FSMQ OCR Additional
Mathematics course which is run once a week after school for gifted and talented students to
opt into. In September 2015, South Axholme Academy opened a new 6 th Form, with
mathematics being the most popular ‘A’ level subject.
Students are following the OCR specification taking Core 1, Core 2 and Mechanics 1 in the
first year followed by Core 3, Core 4 and Statistics 1 in the second year.
The mathematics department are now looking to expand and extend this provision to ensure
that mathematics remains a popular and exciting option at the Academy.
Maths/Department Details Teacher 2015-16