Head of Faculty

Mrs Katy Cottrell

Second in Faculty

Mr Justin Scragg

Ms Rebecca Owens

Our curriculum reflects our high ambitions and expectations, ensuring all students experience a rich and meaningful maths education. We believe every student can behave mathematically and that all students can succeed in our subject. Our fully inclusive curriculum means that classes work simultaneously through the content, with those who excel stretched though depth rather than breadth, and those who lack the prerequisite knowledge or who are disadvantaged, supported to overcome barriers. It is our fundamental belief that, through effort, all pupils are capable of understanding, applying and improving at mathematics.

Our curriculum is planned as a coherent progressive journey from primary school through to post 16 education, ensuring pre-acquired knowledge, concepts and skills are reinforced and built upon, whilst equipping all students with a secure foundation for successful future study. Our curriculum encompasses both a mastery and spiral approach. We spend longer on topics to gain a deep understanding and make connections but also recognise that students need to revisit content in different contexts and at different stages of their mathematical maturity to help them to truly develop. Considerate sequencing ensures previously learnt concepts and procedures are embedded and connected to new learning thus supporting students in understanding the coherent and connected nature of the subject.

Content is atomised and delivered succinctly so students are not burdened with cognitive overload. Modelling and multiple representation alongside considerate questioning and prompts secure understanding. Core knowledge is practised regularly, to ensure it is firmly established thus build an unconscious competence in the fundamentals of numeracy. Such practice builds fluency, freeing up working memory and facilitating the capacity for the new. Regular, low stakes quizzing and daily review tasks promote retrieval and deliberate practice thus building retention and transfer. Evidence based practice, educational research and professional collaboration underpin curriculum development to ensure effective pedagogical approaches for achieving quality first teaching.

What it’s like to be a mathematician at YBA?

We hope that if you ask any of our students what maths lessons are like at YBA they would respond with ‘challenging’, ‘hard’ or ‘difficult’. It is all three, but ultimately, it is one of the most rewarding subjects students will study during their school education. Its remuneration comes in the form of illumination and excitement – those ‘aha’ moments when the ‘penny drops’ and the sense of satisfaction that is felt when a problem is solved.

We nurture young people into mathematicians, they visualise, describe, experiment, create and communicate. They are curious and reflective, they enquire and conjecture. Questioning pushes boundaries whilst ensuring nothing is just beyond their grasp. Students think hard, are resourceful, adaptable and resilient. They preserve when the answer is not immediately apparent to them and flourish when faced with the unfamiliar. We assess students formatively every lesson so that checking for understanding is habitual and teaching and support is tailored to meet the needs of the students in front of us ensuring nobody gets left behind. Through the enjoyment of success, students are empowered, enthusiastic and confident. They are able to work independently, think critically and problem solve. They relish in thought and embrace challenge.