Maths

Maths is a Core Subject for all students at Westlands Academy.

The main aims of Maths are to equip students with the Maths skills needed to enable them to confidently deal with Maths throughout the rest of their lives and to enable students to make their next steps in their education. Maths also helps students to build patience, persistence and resilience.

The Maths Teaching Team at Westlands Academy use a range of differentiated ‘Programs for Study’ which are specifically designed to meet the individual needs of each and every student to fulfil their full Maths potential. The Maths Department also use a range of Vocational and GCSE qualifications which are also differentiated to meet the specific learning needs and ability of each student to recognise their Maths achievements.

Maths is a very important subject and is a basic requirement for most future education courses. A large percentage of jobs and college courses will now ask for a minimum of Grade 4 at GCSE Maths or Functional Skills Level 2 Maths qualifications.  

The Maths Department have several dedicated Maths Specialist Teachers. We have a good track record of supporting students to fulfil their potential and last year a high percentage of students gained GCSE Maths or Functional Skills Maths Qualifications. Students that are significantly behind their targets in Maths are offered bespoke Maths Interventions with and specialist intervention teacher to support them to feel more confident in Maths to enable them to make progress.

For further information please contact the Head of Maths and Assistant Vice Principal for Maths across the Horizons Trust SEMH Academies; Andy Murphy (andy.murphy@horizonstrust.org.uk) 

The SHAPE Curriculum 

Maths is fully committed to ensuring that our students benefit from our whole-academy approach to education using the SHAPE curriculum. By embedding the ethos of this approach, we are able to make sure that our students are aspiring and resilient members of society when they leave us and have secured a formal Maths qualification. 

• Safe: Our students will learn how to use equipment safely and will learn how to deal with money in the classroom and in real world contexts. 
• Healthy: To make sure our students have the lifelong skills to keep themselves healthy our students will be taught Lessons in Business and Finance through their Maths lessons. These lessons focus on Money, Saving Money and Bank Accounts, Selling Items online, Spending and Budgeting, Using Money Abroad, Financial Difficulties and their Consequences, Employability and Applying for Jobs and Roles and Career Paths. We also use real life Maths problems to make the learning experiences more applicable to the students, to make the learning come to life.
• Attendance: Our students will only become successful if they attend lessons. To achieve this, we create a range of stimulating and engaging activities that inspire our students to learn.
• Progress: Our curriculum is differentiated to meet the individual learning needs of each and every student using bespoke Programs of Study. Our students are successful because we provide them with the opportunity to study a range of GCSE and more vocational  Maths qualifications
• Employable: Our students will gain the key skills that are required to ensure that they become productive in the future. Some of the units covered are directly linked to the world of work (using real-world examples) whilst others allow the students to develop the transferable skills that will prove invaluable at post-16 and beyond. 

Across all Programs of Study students will learn a range of different skills in Maths including:

Number, Algebra, Geometry and Measures, Probability, Ratio, Proportions and Statistics, Problem Solving and Lessons in Business and Finance

Key Stage 3

At the start of their Journey at Westlands Academy, students take a number of GL Assessments and CAT4 Testing to determine what level they are working at in Maths. This informs the Program of Study that their Maths Teacher will select for each student to ensure that their learning is specific to meet their individual learning needs in Maths.

Key Stage 4

Students work through the differentiated Programs of Study at their own pace. We aim for every student to gain as many formal alternative Maths qualifications on their journey towards GCSE Maths. Qualifications that are targeted throughout their time at Westlands Academy include: Entry Level 1, 2, 3 and Functional Skills Maths Level 1 and 2.

Maths Programs of Study- Grades and Qualifications