In partnership with our strong Christian foundations and high-quality teaching and learning practice, Maths at Bradford Forster Academy encourages students to become: 

• Ambitious for themselves. 
• Academically successful. 
• Inquisitive and reflective learners. 
• Active and effective participants. 

• Confident communicators. 
• Emotionally resilient. 
• Inspiring to others. 
• Culturally and socially aware. 

Maths is sequenced to allow students to build their knowledge and skills over time by: 

• Ensuring skills are carefully ordered at KS3, that build on KS2 learning.  
• The spaced learning curriculum design ensures that the key core areas of mathematics are revisited each year to aid consolidation throughout KS3, whilst deepening students’ knowledge.  
• Our approach to teaching ensures key content is fully embedded before moving on. Students gain a deep conceptual understanding and develop fluency in mathematical skills through practice and application. 
• All lessons are structured based on the principles of Rosenshein. Before introducing new concepts, prior learning is always revisited before as not to overload the working memory. Content is broken down into small steps. Teachers use explicit instruction with a focus on clear explanations, modelling and frequent checks for understanding.  
• Ensuring all topics that have been previously taught are revisited through spaced practice to aid retrieval using ‘do now’ activities, homework, and interleaving topics to increase retention of learning and to free up working memory.  
• Providing students with immediate feedback in lessons and following assessments, that allows them to make further progress and address any misconceptions. 
• All learners at KS4 will have access to the GCSE maths course where students will follow the foundation, crossover, or higher pathway. We also offer the AQA entry level certificate qualification. The curriculum is differentiated for students of different abilities, ensuring that all students make excellent progress from their own starting points and encapsulating the BFA vision; ‘Everything is possible for one who believes’ (Mark 9:23). 

Maths provides students with opportunities for them to develop the habits and skills needed to succeed in life during and after BFA by: 

• Developing students’ communication skills to reason, justify, and articulate their thoughts, ideas, and conjectures in a mathematically accurate way through the teaching of mathematical vocabulary.  
• Developing pupils to become ambitious for themselves, through the use of stretch and challenge activities where students are encouraged to extend their thinking further to more complex contexts where appropriate. 
• Developing students, so that they are fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics to become numerate and have an appreciation of mathematics in real life contexts, so that they are able to solve real life mathematical problems by applying mathematics. 
• Making links to other subjects and real-life scenarios so pupils have some understanding of where the skills they have developed are used in society and other areas of specialism.  

• Developing cultural capital to prepare pupils for future successes by extending their knowledge in topics such as finances, debt, and recipes and giving students maximum opportunities to achieve, whatever their starting point. 
• Ensuring all lessons include opportunities for independent practice to develop students’ resilience and independence.  By developing these characteristics, we aim for increased levels of confidence and independence, so that they contribute positively to the life of the school, their local community, and the wider environment.