Mathematics

Head of Department; Pamela Pawley

Graham Warner, Roger Bowden, Henrietta Drummond, Damien Marshman, Chris Monks, Sheila Platt, Tristran Stone

Maths is housed in five traditional classrooms, equipped with computers, new furniture, whiteboards and overhead projectors. There is also a departmental library.

Large number of students are encouraged to enter National Mathematics competitions at all age levels, and to engage in a variety of broadening activities.

Classes are set from Year 7 (11/12 years) and class sizes are especially small in Years 10 and 11 (14 to 16 years). Top sets enter the AQA GCSE at higher level whilst others enter at intermediate level. Weaker students would typically be in a class of about ten.I n this way we are able to obtain excellent results at GCSE. The top set in Year 10 enters for AQA Statistics GCSE.

In the Sixth form we are able to offer a variety of 'A' and 'AS' level courses including Further Mathematics. Students can opt for modules in pure mathematics, statistics, mechanics and decision making. We also support students wishing to enter Oxford or Cambridge.

Overall, we pride ourselves on retaining the best of the traditional approach, whilst using new opportunities to the full. We hope that our students will obtain both a sense of achievement and the best possible examination results. Perhaps more informative than the raw examination results is the value added data which compares exam results with achievement prior to the course. Data is currently available at Key Stage 3 and at 'A' level.

At Key Stage 3 we have been 'better than average' each year and at 'A' level we have achieved an average of more than half a grade extra for every student in the past seven years.