Mathematics
Mathematics taught at the British Schools of America is based on the
National Curriculum (England) and the UK National Numeracy Strategy.
This strategy was devised to raise standards in Mathematics.
Just as an hour is assigned each day to literacy work (The Literacy Hour), so a similar period of time is allocated to number work (The Numeracy Hour) in Key Stages One and Two. Each lesson consists of a warm-up/mental arithmetic activity, which may involve counting around the classroom, looking for patterns and/or mental calculation strategies.
The second part of the lesson is the main teaching activity and may be linked to the mental arithmetic session. This will involve much direct teaching with interaction from the children followed by related activities differentiated to the children's abilities. This may be in written form, in the form of an activity, a teacher focus group or a related activity on the computer. The children work individually, in pairs or in groups.
The final part of the lesson or plenary is designed to evaluate the
learning that has taken place in that lesson, gives children
opportunities to demonstrate their learning, make links to other work
in mathematics as well as give pupils an insight into the next stage of
their learning.
There are 5 distinct strands within the National Curriculum (England) that we teach at British Schools of America:
- Numbers and the number system
- Calculations
- Solving problems
- Measures, shapes and space
- Handling data
Although each strand is taught separately, Mathematics links with other curriculum subjects where appropriate.
At Key Stage One
pupils develop their knowledge and understanding through practical
activity, exploration and discussion, they learn to count, read, write
and order numbers to 100 and beyond. Children continue to develop a
range of mental calculation skills and use them in different settings.
Learning about Shape & Space is achieved through practical
activities and they begin to grasp mathematical vocabulary to talk
about their methods and explain their reasoning. Oral/mental work is
essential at Key Stage One as this lays the foundations for thorough
understanding in Key Stage Two and beyond.
At Key Stage Two pupils use the number system more
confidently and develop a range of pencil and paper (written) methods
of calculation for the four rules with the aim of achieving an
efficient method of calculation. They do, however, continue to try to
tackle problems with mental methods before using any other approach.
Children explore features of Shape & Space and develop measuring
skills in context and they discuss and present their methods and
reasoning using a wider range of mathematical language.
At Key Stage Three pupils take increasing responsibility for planning and executing their work. They extend their calculating skills to fractions, percentages and decimals, and begin to understand the importance of proportional reasoning. They are beginning to use algebraic techniques and symbols with confidence. They generate and solve simple equations and study linear functions and their corresponding graphs. They begin to use deduction to manipulate algebraic expressions. Pupils progress from a simple understanding of the features of shape and space to using definitions and reasoning to understand geometrical objects. As they encounter simple algebraic and geometric proofs, they begin to understand reasoned arguments. They communicate mathematics in speech and a variety of written forms, explaining their reasoning to others. They study handling data through practical activities and are introduced to a quantitative approach to probability. Pupils work with increasing confidence and flexibility to solve unfamiliar problems. They develop positive attitudes towards mathematics and increasingly make connections between different aspects of mathematics.
During Key Stage Four pupils continue to develop mathematical skills in the National Curriculum Strands of Ma2 (Number and Algebra), Ma3 (Shape, Space and Measures) and Ma4 (Handling Data). Appropriate knowledge, skills and understanding are acquired through activities that ensure they become familiar with and confident using standard procedures for the range of calculations appropriate to this level of study, including solving familiar and unfamiliar problems in a range of numerical, algebraic and graphical contexts and in open-ended and closed form; using standard notations for decimals, fractions, percentages, ratio and indices; activities that show how algebra, as an extension of number using symbols, gives precise form to mathematical relationships and calculations; activities in which they progress from using definitions and short chains of reasoning to understanding and formulating proofs in algebra and geometry; a sequence of practical activities that address increasingly demanding statistical problems in which they draw inferences from data and consider the uses of statistics in society; choosing appropriate ICT tools and using these to solve numerical and graphical problems, to represent and manipulate geometrical configurations and to present and analyse data.