At Ellesmere Port Catholic High School Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline. Mathematics has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

The Key Stage 3 curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils: 

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. 
• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language 
• can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions. 

Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. Pupils will build on their learning from key stage 2 and make connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems.  

The Key Stage 4 curriculum for mathematics encourages students to develop confidence in, and a positive attitude towards mathematics and to recognise the importance of mathematics in their own lives and to society. It also provides a strong mathematical foundation for students who go on to study mathematics at a higher level post-16. 

The Key Stage 5 curriculum for mathematics provides students with the opportunity to understand mathematics and mathematical processes in a way that promotes confidence, fosters enjoyment and provides a strong foundation for progress to further study. It will extend their range of mathematical skills and techniques and help them to understand coherence and progression in mathematics and how different areas of mathematics are connected. 

Students will be able to apply mathematics in other fields of study and be aware of the relevance of mathematics to the world of work and to situations in society in general. They will use their mathematical knowledge to make logical and reasoned decisions in solving problems both within pure mathematics and in a variety of contexts, and communicate the mathematical rationale for these decisions clearly.