Spotlight on the new National Curriculum for Mathematics

As Lead Producer for Mathematics here at EducationCity, getting to grips with the new 2014 National Curriculum and examining how it will impact our existing Mathematics resources has been my primary goal.

The most significant impact comes from increased expectation levels. More demands have been put on pupils of all ages and many objectives have been brought forward in the curriculum – in some cases by multiple years – with a number also receiving subtle tweaks or additions in order to make them more rigorous.

In order to mirror these changes in the Programme of Study for Mathematics, much of our content will be migrating between year groups, exposing gaps that we will need to fill with new content and some objectives that would benefit from further support.

Tackling this migration has therefore been our major focus for the past few months, providing us with a fantastic opportunity to explore what more can be done with each of our different content types, sparking lively debate here in the office and inspiring some really exciting content ideas for the next twelve months! Tackling this migration is going to be a huge challenge, but one that we’re embracing with tremendous enthusiasm!

We shall soon be creating our first pieces of content looking at Roman numerals, developing a range of Activities and Tools to more deeply explore fractions and decimals, and releasing a series of brand new Learn Screens to help reinforce and expand knowledge of basic operations. We’ll also be recording and releasing two more sing-alongs to complement our hugely popular Times Table series – the 11 and 12 Times Tables!

Our current Activities will also be reviewed to see where they would benefit from further reinforcement and more challenging content in light of the higher expectations, with tougher problems or extra support material being introduced where appropriate. Another big job, but one that we know you will appreciate!

We will also be exploring the flexibility of our content to support and encourage pupil-led practice of new concepts, and putting an emphasis on real-world contextualisation in order to help pupils engage with tricky concepts and to aid in their understanding and appreciation of the importance of Mathematics in everyday life.

These new additions are going to require a lot of work, but the team here at EducationCity are really excited and are already getting stuck in to make sure the support is there for you and your pupils when the National Curriculum becomes statutory in September 2014.

In the meantime, we’d love to hear your feedback regarding any of our Mathematics content and how we could help you to make full use of it in your implementation of the new National Curriculum.

Duncan Frowde, Lead Producer of Mathematics