Curriculum
Welcome to the Maths Department at Forest Hill School. I would like to give you a brief summary of the Department. I am particularly proud of the results at all key stages. For the last three years including this year, we have exceeded 60% Grades Cs and above at GCSE. Last year over a fifth of our year 11s gained GCSE A or A* grades.
We have gained a Centre of Excellence Award in the use ICT and Mathematics. In addition, we are the major teaching school for Mathematics for Goldsmiths College in their Teacher Training Programme. The ethos of the Maths Department is that Mathematics encompasses all aspects of everyday life and, as such, we focus on the use of Mathematics in the real world and encourage our pupils to become independent learners in the subject. We also focus on the more abstract nature of the subject to prepare our pupils for studying Mathematics in Higher Education and to develop their thinking and learning skills.
We also encourage our pupils to have fun with the subject and take part in National Maths Challenge competitions and Maths Puzzle Club.
Maths
Courses
KS3
In line with the changes in the curriculum at KS3, our pupils do investigative project-based work. We aim to develop their thinking and learning skills and their abilities to work in groups.
Each pupil at KS3 has their own textbook, but a significant percentage of their work will be done on-line. We focus on maths in the real world and we do educational visits which feed into other subject areas. Our year 8s have visited the Art Department at Goldsmiths’ College (University of London) to investigate the links between Mathematics in Art.
KS4
We do both modular and linear GCSE exams and we also give our pupils the greatest opportunity to excel by early entering them for their GCSE Maths exams in year 10. For those pupils who gain a grade A or above they have the choice of studying AS Maths a year early in year 11. We link the work we do in the classroom to the real world and, as such, have organised trips to the London Metal Exchange, PriceWaterHouseCoopers and the Royal Bank of Scotland, to name but three.
KS5
At KS5 we offer a range of courses, for example, GCSE Re-take, AS Maths, A Level Maths and Further Maths. We believe in giving our students the best chance of expanding their mathematical knowledge, and gearing them for Higher Education.
We retain a substantial number of our pupils from KS4 to KS5 in our subject area. Currently we have over 40 pupils studying AS Maths with us. We organise visits to leading universities. We have a large number of these pupils to read Mathematics at universities including Oxford and Cambridge.
Click here for a list of recommended reading for students studying or planning to study maths at KS5. The University of Cambridge's Faculty of Mathematics has also produced a Mathematical Reading List for A level students intending to study maths at university.
Extra Curricular
For our year 7 pupils we run, in conjunction with the School Library, the Maths Puzzle Club, where the pupils get to play various maths puzzles: Sudoku, chess and tackle ‘brain-teasers.’
At KS4 and KS5 we run revision classes to reinforce and enhance the pupils’ learning.
Click on the links below for more information:
Schemes of work
Goldsmiths
World Maths Day
UK Maths Challenge
Maths Puzzle Club
Exams Timetable