Whole School Numeracy
Numeracy at EPCS has been gathering momentum for the past 2-3 years. There are several branches to this work including tutor time work, whole school initiatives and outreach work. More recently, the staffing body has been doing some work on cross curricular links in order to enable all teachers, of any subject, to see the common thread that numeracy can be in any specialisation across the school.
This, when put together, can give students a really explicit picture of how Maths and numeracy are a key life skill. More importantly, it gives staff and students a real chance to apply numeracy and Maths in the way it is meant to be applied; as a key tool to help us see and shape the world around us.
The aim for EPCS is for every teacher to make explicit links to numeracy in their subject area and for numeracy to be consistently facilitated, using a common language, so that our students can be fluent in its usage. The Maths department are also building a clear picture of where each subject delivered numeracy so that this si a two way process to benefit our learners.
As part of the whole school goals, numeracy is delivered during tutor time once a week where the resources provided are based on student data. Tutors keep a chart of this work and are enabled to facilitate self assessment and progression. The work supports the Maths content for each child so that it complements the work they do in lessons in a personalised way.
Aside from tutor time and in lessons, intervention sessions are planned for those students who need the extra support because they may have started secondary school behind in their chronological number age. Students who show academic excellence are also supported through program such as UK Maths challenge and other locally ran events where we compete against other schools.
Working with the local community, numeracy flies its flag through year 5 days where Maths is merged with cooking, for example. We also hold, very successfully, annual parent nights for year 7 students and their parents to learn numeracy and Maths together. This helps parents support their child with their home learning; building firmer foundations of the key numeracy skills.