A comprehensive set of resources designed for mastering maths and building confidence at KS3 from Pearson…
At a glance
- Superb planning, teaching, learning and assessment resources
- A single, well-paced and structured core curriculum with purposeful practice
- Textbooks with tried-and-tested differentiation and extra support for skills building
- Top-notch digital offering with a first-class toolkit
When it comes to structuring a maths programme, getting the cognitive architecture right is crucial.
Maths Progress (Second Edition) for KS3, from Pearson, builds on the first edition and includes impressive additions and fine-grain edits that draw on feedback and a 2-year study into its effectiveness – Pearson really has been listening to its customers.
The Maths Progress offer is built on decuplet of pedagogical principles namely: fluency, problem-solving, reflection, mathematical reasoning, progression, linking, multiplicative reasoning, modelling, concrete–pictorial–abstract (CPA) and relevance.
Together these combine to create sequenced learning experiences and tasks that are based on sound and significant mathematics, providing students with multiple representations to develop their conceptual understandings and a huge range of tasks to develop problem-solving, fluency and computational flexibility.
At its heart, the series aims to feed and fuel confidence and progression.
So what do you get for your money? Well, there are three colourful and skilfully written Core Textbooks, supplemented by Support Books to strengthen key knowledge and skills and also Depth Books for extending knowledge and skills.
The books focus on building mastery over time and so carefully structure lessons to include layers of worked examples, practice, hints and challenges powered by metacognitive questions and formative check-up tests.
Students then select a route to consolidate further, strengthen or diversify. There is certainly no shortage of practice for improvement, and the series also includes three powerful Purposeful Practice Books containing nearly 4,000 questions using minimal variation.
The pot of gold for me, though, is ActiveLearn, an online service with cracking resources for you and your students.
These include a brilliant interactive scheme of work, online student books with links to PowerPoints, videos and animations, auto-marked homework activities and also 500 editable homework sheets.
Assessment is a big feature, too, with nearly 100 KS3 assessments and online markbooks with end-of-unit, end-of-term and end-of-year tests. You can even create your own assessments. There is everything here for planning, teaching and tracking.
These are industrious, bright and carefully researched resources that connect to students’ prior knowledge, teach for conceptual understanding, develop procedural literacy and demand higher order thinking.
Verdict
- Enables students to build on their existing proficiencies, interests, and experiences
- Develops mathematical competencies and fluency without fear
- Packed with worthwhile tasks
- Uses students’ misconceptions and errors as building blocks
- Cleverly integrates appropriate challenge and bolsters progression
Upgrade if…
You are looking for an accessible series of maths resources with in-built personalisation that champions mastery and maths wellbeing to help inspire ambitious and capable learners.
Find out more at pearsonschools.co.uk/2019mathsprogress.
Reviewed by John Dabell
