What a year it has been so far. With thousands of teachers getting involved in Complete Mathematics through our ‘Research Schools’ project, the National Mathematics Teacher Conferences and our regional CPD roadshows, ITE and TeachFirst students learning their craft with the support of collaborating teachers, and those schools that have adopted the system in school to help raise standards in maths, we have been amazed at the way the community has engaged with La Salle.
Summer term is now kicking off and we are determined that Complete Mathematics will continue to grow and reflect the views of our community of thousands of teachers. Over the last few months, teachers have been telling us what will really help them in the summer term. We have a standing joke in the La Salle office: Complete Mathematics, it will never be complete! You see, Complete Mathematics is not like other systems – it has always been our intention for the project to grow and grow and grow, reflecting the real needs of those actually teaching in classrooms day-to-day.
So we are proud to announce that during this next half term, we will add the following new features to Complete Mathematics:
With the school leaving age now increasing and all students expected to continue with the study of mathematics up to the age of 18, many schools and colleges will be faced with the enormous challenge of creating a new programme of study for those students not following an A Level course. For many, this will mean putting together a pathway and resources for the new Core Maths course. Thousands of teachers will be faced with the same problem of creating a robust structure and scheme of work. That’s why La Salle will add Core Maths into Complete Mathematics at the end of May. This will give schools access to a fully resourced scheme (and assessments for tracking!), which can be deployed to their students. Of course, being in Complete Mathematics, the course will not just be a scheme of work and some content – as with all other areas, Core Maths will be fully supported with pedagogical notes, misconceptions, exemplar questions and a host of other support materials. Given that many schools and colleges will be faced with the challenge of delivering Core Maths without additional specialist staffing, we hope that these support materials will enable all teachers to deliver the highest quality lessons for those post-16 students taking up the course.
We have already put together a comprehensive scheme for the new key stage 4 national curriculum (you can use it right now in Complete Mathematics), but will now be going further to create specific schemes for AQA, Edexcel and OCR GCSE mathematics. Rather than having to build a scheme, you will be able to simply select the level (higher or foundation) and the awarding body for an immediate, fully resourced and supported scheme of work and online learning and assessment materials.
Complete Mathematics already contains a fully exemplified scheme of work for KS1, KS2, KS3 and KS4. Later in the term, we’ll also be adding schemes for A Level maths. Another great addition to the system, which will allow you to continue to use Complete Mathematics with your older students.
Already, hundreds of teachers have built schemes of work in Complete Mathematics, using our quick and easy SoW Builder. We’ve been so impressed by the quality of curriculum design and thought that has gone into these that we are soon introducing a SoW Publisher – this means you will be able to send your scheme to other people in your school, colleagues you have added as ‘friends’ or the entire Complete Mathematics community!
You have been telling us that you want even more flexibility in your lesson planner, so that is what we are working on now. Thanks to suggestions from teachers across the country, the Super-Customisable Lesson Planner will give you all the freedom you need to chop and change, add in additional concepts, repeat topics, or simply ‘go off on one’ mid-lesson!
The primary specialist members of our team have been busying themselves with creating ever more content and support materials for KS1. These materials are already appearing online and will continue to grow in the coming weeks. All ‘new curriculum’ compliant of course!
Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of Complete Mathematics to date has been to see the hundreds of resources and lesson notes being added by teachers across the country – particularly those ones marked ‘public’. It never ceases to cheer us up when we see how keen teachers are to support each other. Complete Mathematics is a very different environment to other maths education sites – everything that makes it onto the system goes through a curating and QA process, which means, unlike some sites, you can be assured that the materials you use are of the highest quality. During the summer term, we’ll be looking out for the most interesting and effective materials added by teachers – there will be a prize for the best!
If you haven’t yet heard about the Mathematics Teacher Network, summer term is the time to get involved. Oxford University Press, AQA and La Salle Education have joined forces to bring high quality CPD to maths teachers across the country entirely for free. See our MTN page for details.
During this half term, we will be preparing for the National Mathematics Teacher Conference. This will be the fourth conference and will take place on Saturday 20 June in Manchester. The venue is stunning and vast – but it needs to be, the conference is open to 1000 teachers! Our conferences have fast become the largest gatherings for maths teachers from primary and secondary schools. If you haven’t joined an event yet, be sure to come along. You will have the chance to collaborate and learn from teachers from across England.
So, a very busy half term on the way, but Complete Mathematics will never stop growing. In the second half of the summer term we have even more exciting new developments to tell you about. But, more importantly, we also want to hear from you – your feedback and suggestions are what lead to our developments. Please do get in touch if there is something we can do for you and your school. Help the wish list grow and influence the Complete Mathematics of tomorrow!
Have a great half term. Enjoy the sunshine and warming weather. And keep doing the most amazing job on earth: being a teacher.