Teachers & Roles in Department
- Mrs H Thornton – Curriculum Team Leader
- Mr M Crossley – Lead Teacher (from January 2011)
- Mr A Hibbert – Key Stage 4 mathematics coordinator
- Mrs J Whitfield – Key Stage 3 mathematics co-ordinator
- Mr D Bisley – Assistant Head Teacher (Inclusion)
- Mr A Doran – Teacher of mathematics and science
- Mr M Doyle – Deputy Head Teacher
- Mrs C Fyfe-Jones – Teacher of mathematics
- Mrs T Khan – Teacher of mathematics
About the Mathematics Department at Darton High School
he Mathematics department has a strong, balanced staff of well established mathematicians and young forward thinking leaders, who have a vision for the future of the department. The department has been strengthened over the last year, with the introduction of a new Curriculum Team Leader and Lead Teacher, and intends to raise its current A* to C pass rate from 59%, in June 2010.
New initiatives have been introduced including completing KS3 in 2 years and sitting the GCSE at the end of year 10. This will give students an opportunity to improve their GCSE grade in year 11, increasing the chance of them achieving a grade C or above. The early entry will also allow the department to offer GCSE Statistics or AS mathematics for the more successful students, in year 11.
The present year 11 (leaving 2011) have sat the Edexcel linear examination (Specification 1380) in early November and will receive their results in January 2011. Year 10 will take Edexcel (Specification 5381) module 1 (Statistics) in November of year 10, module 2 in March and module 3 ion June of year 10. Year 9 are hot on their tails sitting Edexcel (Secification 2MBO1) module 1 in March, module 2 in November and module 3 in June of year 10. Resits are available for each of these modules so that students can improve their grades.
The year 7 and 8 scheme of work makes use of the “Mathslink” series, published by Oxford. It is a differentiated at three levels for each year and is integrated into the schools scheme of work along with in-house work, “Mymaths” material and functional skills through the “Bright sparks” problems.
The mathematics department aim to help students to develop an enjoyment and understanding of mathematics, the skills of which they are able to transfer to all aspects of their present and future life. They recognise the need for a student to achieve a mathematics GCSE grade C or above as part of achieving a level 2 education (5GCSE grade C or above including Mathematics and English). They also subscribe to the ethos of life long learning, where students realise their full mathematical potential.
The department is housed in seven classrooms within two blocks of the school. All classrooms have interactive whiteboards allowing lessons to be as interactive as possible. Following a massive financial input each classroom is well resourced with up to date text books, which support the latest mathematical learning techniques.
Extra-Curricular Activities
Mathematics is used across the curriculum and impacts on many areas of life.
A weekly intervention group is operated by the department on a Tuesday evening. Mathematical conference days are held in the weeks preceding external examinations and the “Castleton mathematics and English weekend” is now well established.
