Mathematics

Mathematics is the most widely used subject in the world. Every career uses it in some shape or form. More importantly, practising Mathematics helps the mind to reason and organise complicated situations or problems into clear, simple, and logical steps. In a society such as ours, jobs often demand someone who can take complicated situations and simplify them to a level that everyone can understand. 

We view the Mathematics syllabus in terms of a helical model. Topics are introduced at a simple level and are revisited at intervals always building in and extending previous knowledge. Year by year our pupils’ grasp of the subject is both reinforced and enlarged. While the more able pupil is constantly stimulated by more challenging examples the weaker pupil benefits from regular reinforcement and is enabled to develop confidence through success.

Students at Ballard School will be given the opportunity to follow GCSE Statistics as well as GCSE Mathematics. Our more able pupils in years 6 to 11 are also be able to take part in the prestigious UK Maths challenge provided by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust.

Mathematics is important for your daily life, no matter what you want to do. It's true not everything you learn will be needed later but you never know what you'll want to do, and the more you know and have to build on the better off you'll be. Try to look at Mathematics as a game where you start with a few simple rules and see what more complicated rules you can come up using those simple tools. This will make learning much more enjoyable and less of a chore of memorisation.

Recommended websites to help with pupils’ Mathematics:

www.mymaths.co.uk Years 3 to 11

www.mangahigh.com/en_gb/games Years 3 to 11

www.sumdog.com Years 3 to 8

www.sesamestreet.org/games Years 3 to 5

There are many more but these are our top 4 recommendations – plus BBC Bitesize of course.