Mathematics is one of the three core subjects within the National Curriculum. It is recognised, as one of the subjects that students need to have as good an understanding of as possible from a very early age. For students to progress into Higher Education, they need to possess at least a C grade at GCSE in Mathematics, so clearly it has great importance as a subject.

The Department offers opportunities for students to develop their knowledge and understanding of Mathematics through, for example, participation in the UK Mathematics Challenges, held annually in Junior (Y7 & 8), Intermediate (Y10) and Senior (Y12) categories. Students from all years have the opportunity to attend master classes at Liverpool Hope University, as well as revision sessions at weekends, put on by departmental members, at venues both in and out of college.

The department has access to a set of laptops just for students and students can avail themselves with software which covers all aspects of the National Numeracy Strategy and the GCSE syllabus being followed. There is an interactive whiteboard in each of the teaching rooms, together with associated hardware, as well as a diverse range of practical equipment, from dominoes and dice to the `Maths Safari’ machines.

In Key Stage 4, the students follow the OCR Modular GCSE course, during which the students take two module tests, one in Year 10 and one in Year 11, each worth 25%. They sit the terminal exam, worth another 50% of the marks. In Key Stage 5, the students follow the Edexcel AS and A2 course. For AS, the students undertake two modules in Pure Mathematics and one in Statistics and in A2 they take modules in Pure Maths, Statistics and Mechanics. The opportunity to undertake further Mathematics also exists.

The introduction of the modular scheme at GCSE is seen as a way of improving the percentage of students obtaining grade C or better. It is proposed to continue with the revision sessions being offered by the departmental members and also to extend this idea by inviting outside agencies into college to undertake such sessions, so that the students’ experience is varied.