How can I help my child at Key Stage 3?
Key Stage 3 and 4 Support Work Overview
Other ways that you can help your child:
- Practise multiplication tables at home.
- Encourage your child to discuss money, best deals etc while out shopping.
- Ensure your child has the correct equipment and they are organised with their homework and encourage resilience on recall areas.
- Be able to use an analogue clock.
- Use MathsWatch and Dr Frost at home (Username: your school email address, Password: changeyourpassword for Mathswatch. The password for Y7 students is the same as their username. Use Password1 for Dr Frost maths*).
- Encourage a positive attitude towards the subject.
The Year 7-9 scheme of work uses a mastery approach and use of mathematical reasoning to promote the resilience to problem-solving. They are assessed during two MAD reviews in Make a Difference lessons. These are a short review of work covered in the previous two weeks. The feedback from these should improve understanding ready for the more formal end of topic assessments. From these, support can be offered through online learning and intervention lessons to plug any gaps in understanding before moving onto thew next topic.
In KS3 they follow a homework cycle where they will complete a topic homework every other week. This homework consists of five sections:
- This week
- Last week
- Last month
- Last term
- Last year
Some sections may require using old exercise books or watch clips on Mathswatch or Dr Frost to recall prior learning.
The end of Year 7 assessment will cover topics from Year 7
The end of Year 8 assessment will cover topics from Year 7 and Year 8
The end of Year 9 assessment will cover topics from Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9. This will be half a foundation GCSE paper and will also be a baseline for Key Stage 4.
How can I help my child at Key Stage 4?
Year 10 Foundation Support Work
Year 11 Foundation Support Work
- Ensure your child uses the MathsWatch and Dr Frost Online Revision website. (Username: your school email address, Password: changeyourpassword for Mathswatch and Password1 for Dr Frost maths*)
- Help them carefully plan their revision before exams. Make sure they are answering questions and not just reading a revision book.
- Ensure they have the correct equipment, especially a scientific calculator.
- Discuss financial matters with them at home eg mortgages, interest rates and household budgeting.
- Support their attendance at any revision sessions offered.
Year 10 and 11 consolidates the foundation work covered in Key Stage 3. Both follow the AQA linear course at either a higher (grades 9-4) or foundation level (grades 5-1). The final exam sat at the end of Year 11 is made up of three papers. Paper 1 is non-calculator, Papers 2 and 3 are both calculator.
How can I help my child at Key Stage 5?
At sixth form, pupils are expected to spend about five hours per week on their Maths work outside of lesson times. These are some beneficial activities that they could do during this time:
- Homework
- Go over anything that you didn’t understand from that days lesson
- Do more practise questions based on the topic you learnt that day
- Make a revision flashcard/summary sheet of what you’ve learnt that day
- Go back to something you learnt last week and try some questions based on it
- Go back to something you learnt last month and try some questions based on it
- Past paper questions
- Wider reading on the topics that you are studying
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