Numeracy

Numeracy is the ability to understand and use maths in daily life, at home, work or school. Numeracy doesn’t mean complex skills, like algebra, it means being confident enough to use basic maths in real-life situations. Numeracy is equally as important as literacy – it’s sometimes called ‘mathematical literacy’ – and we need both to be successful later in life. All teachers at HOH are teachers of numeracy.  Working together, we can achieve a culture of nurturing and promoting numeracy across the academy.

Here at HOH we secure high standards of numeracy across the school through developing a whole school Numeracy Policy which enables all staff to access support and guidance. Alongside this, we ensure consistency of practice including methods, vocabulary and notation by developing the cross curricular use of numeracy. Opportunities for numeracy are identified within lessons and schemes of work. Within the numeracy strategy we build the pupils to become a risk taker as part of the IB learner profile. Through the framework of the MYP, we are able to teach the pupils how important their numeracy, methods and understanding is within the real world and not just within their time at HOH. 

Through analysis of pupil outcomes, we target specific intervention strategies for groups of pupils to ensure that all pupils, no matter their starting point, have the best chances of securing outcomes. In turn, this will ensure that pupils can access their next steps of education and support them in the employment process.

  • All teachers are teachers of numeracy.
  • All teachers model high expectations of methods and understanding of numeracy.
  • To ensure students are confident with basic numeracy skills
  • Additional timetabled lessons for pupils who may need extra support to make expected progress within  year 7, year 8.
  • We have the expectation that all staff deliver a fortnightly  lesson working on specific methods, topics and financial skills during form time. Within the lesson the form tutor would use the tailor-made activities for the pupils.  They are designed to allow the pupils the chance to work independently on the task set within the lesson. Whole school CPD is delivered to all staff as compulsory training to ensure teachers are aware of how important this is for pupils and are confident in their delivery of this.
  • The maths department will lead CPD sessions for all staff on numeracy skills so that staff are knowledgeable and able to deliver the content whilst simultaneously enabling staff to ask questions of the maths team if they are unsure of anything.
  • The numeracy coordinator will conduct Learning walks on departments to give feedback on aspects of numeracy delivery to foster a nurturing and progressive environment for numeracy across the academy.
  • Targeted pupils will have extra numeracy sessions, and these will focus on basic numeracy skills.
  • Staff will be more competent in their understanding of numerical concepts and therefore be able to deliver content proficiently. This will have a direct impact on pupil progress.
  • Pupils have immediate access (both at home and in class) to use Sparx as an independent learning resource as it’s used for homework.
  • Our numeracy marking policy ensures that literacy development is a key focus for all staff and pupils.
  • Gaps in relation to numeracy topics will be narrowed and those pupils, who came in below for these numeracy topics will have made accelerated progress by the end of the academic year.