Dear Parent/Carer
I am writing to tell you about the exciting new approach to teaching Maths that we have introduced 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 child.
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 students 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. This year the Maths faculty achieved their best ever results with 90% of students achieving a C grade or above at GCSE but we want every child 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 partner 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 the UK
( http://www.mathematicsmastery.org/ )
The ARK schools network designed and implemented the Mathematics Mastery Programme using research
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• 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 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 child will have four lessons a week 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 child will do on their 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 child to develop her mathematical curiosity and language. There will be exercises to develop their 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 child ’s sense of discovery and to encourage problem solving we will be using manipulatives in 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
Autumn 1
Number sense
Autumn 2
Multiplication and division
Spring 1
Angle and line properties
Spring 2
Fractions
Summer 1
Algebraic representations
Summer 2
Percentages and pie charts
Topics
Integer place value
Round and estimate
Add and subtract
Word problems
Decimal numbers
Decimal place value
Find perimeter
Multiples, LCM
Multiplication
Multiplication of decimals
Rectangle and triangle area
Factor, HCF
Division
Mean average
(Investigation)
Estimate measures
Read scales
Draw, measure and name angles
Angle types
Triangles
Quadrilaterals
(Investigation)
Fractions as numbers, fractions as operators
Equivalent fractions
Compare and order fractions
Multiplicative relationships with fractions
Fraction of a quantity
Multiply and divide fractions
Order of operations
Symbolic notation
Substitute and simplify
Interpret pie charts
Convert fractions, decimals and percentages
Percentage of a quantity
(Investigations)
Assessment
Module 1 Pre-learning assessment (Sept)
Module 2 Post -learning assessment (Oct)
Module 3 Pre-learning assessment (Nov)
Module 4 Post -learning assessment (Dec)
Termly assessment paper
Module 5 Pre-learning assessment (Jan)
Module 6 Post -learning assessment (Feb)
Module 7 Pre-learning assessment (March)
Module 8 Post -learning assessment (April)
Termly assessment paper
Module 9 Pre-learning assessment (April)
Module 10 Post -learning assessment (May))
Module 11 Pre-learning assessment ( June)
Module 12 Post -learning assessment (July)
Termly assessment paper

The assessment schedule will enable your child’s teacher to monitor their 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 child to think mathematically.
It is important that you are aware that there may be the possibility that your child will not appear to make as much progress if the old 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 child 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 weekly to consolidate 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.
On Tuesday 10 th November we are holding a Mathematics Mastery information evening. This will be taking place in the Auditorium from 5.00pm – 6.00pm.
If you plan to attend please reply on the slip below and return this to your child’s Maths teacher.
We look forward to working with you to ensure your child develops a love of Mathematics as well as achieving the highest grade at GCSE.
Yours sincerely
Alex Cooper
Associate Principal for Mathematical Learning
Reply slip for the Mathematics Mastery information evening.
Student name:__________________________________________________________________
Form:_________________________________________________________________________
Mathematics teacher: ____________________________________________________________
I will/will not be attending the Mathematics Mastery information evening on Tuesday 10 th November 2015 .
Please return this slip to your childs Mathematics teacher.