Starting points tend to be different for each pupil and class. We have developed the CM Curriculum in 13 stages, to roughly align with the 13 years of school mathematics, which can act as a guideline for you. For example, if you think your new Year 7 / S1 class is secure on everything that they should have been taught up to that point, then Unit 7.1 would be a good place to start. 

In practice however, classes tend not to be secure on everything they should have covered, so you'll need to identify the point of the curriculum which is more appropriate to start at. We would suggest identifying this point for each of your classes by running a series of custom diagnostic assessments before teaching commences (though this could be run at any point!). A large group of our member schools have been doing this to great effect. 

On the Assessments page, create a series of Custom Diagnostic Tests on all of Stage 1 (for this example we're starting right at the beginning of the learning journey, but you may want to start your diagnostic series later). The longer the assessment, the more questions and marks available and so the deeper insight into each stage you gain — 20 minutes roughly equates to 20 marks. To assess a whole stage of the curriculum, we would recommend setting e.g. 3x 20 minute quizzes covering all of the content within the stage. You can assign each assessment to any/all of your classes across the institution, so could run these diagnostics series simultaneously across multiple cohorts.

Do the same for each consecutive stage until you hit a pre-determined point, or once the results show that the class and pupils are no longer secure on the content being covered.

For example, we could find that our pupils were secure with Stages 1-4, but the Stage 5 diagnostic showed some consistent gaps and the Stage 6 diagnostic showed a general lack of coverage. On top of the individual diagnostic assessment RAG analyses, we could investigate the Classes' Markbook and Analytics page to find a breakdown of objectives that are the 'Suggested Areas for Improvement' along with the overall MathsAge of the class which is a strong identifier of where on the maths learning journey your class is operating.
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Having identified the areas you'd like to start with, you can go to the Schemes of Work page to build up the appropriate scheme, using the existing Complete Mathematics Stages, Units, Statements and Objectives. Alternatively, through the timetable you can plan your first identified objective in your first lesson, and then you can just move linearly through the Complete Maths curriculum from that point, as your class' progression allows.

Use the in lesson quizzes, built around recently taught objectives, to constantly inform yourself of progression and attainment so that you do not move too far ahead too fast, looping back to objectives as required to ensure your are building solid foundations.

Here is a breakdown of how this might work in practice. We have assumed here you are setting one longer assessment per stage of the Curriculum. For this example, we have whole year groups set up in classes, numbered accordingly. You might instead like to set these groups based on your judgements of their attainment. (Note: Year 1 — Class 1 — omitted as they are starting at the beginning of the curriculum journey so have nothing to test)
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Assessments Series created:
Stage 1 Diagnostic Test, assigned to Class 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Stage 2 Diagnostic Test, assigned to Class 3, 4, 5, 6
Stage 3 Diagnostic Test, assigned to Class 4, 5, 6
Stage 4 Diagnostic Test, assigned to Class 5, 6
Stage 5 Diagnostic Test, assigned to Class 6
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We run this assessment series in sequence, and after each assessment we have the opportunity to move pupils around, so that we can either stop them from having further assessments — if they have already reached their limit — or indeed if they performed unexpectedly well we can give them further assessments.
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For example:
• We take our 'Stage 3 Diagnostic' test, completed by Classes 4, 5, 6
• Before the next test we move any Class 5, 6 pupils who didn't get above 80% in the 'Stage 3 Diagnostic' into Class 4.
• We also move any Class 4 pupils who got above 80% in 'Stage 3 Diagnostic' to Class 5.
• The next test, 'Stage 4 Diagnostic', is then taken by all pupils in Classes 5, 6.
• Follow this process after each test.
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What you should then be left with are your adjusted groups, Classes 2–6, based on relative attainment across the diagnostic series.