GCSE Maths

Information for Parents

• New GCSE Curriculum

• Progress and Contact

• Homework

• Exam preparation and revision resources

• How parents can help

New grading system

(we’re 1 year in)

Top 2% of pupils achieve 9

7 is anchored to old A

4 is anchored to old C

5 is set between B and C

1 is the old F and G

Tiers for new GCSE

• The new specification is more demanding than the old system – meaning that all pupils experience a higher level of mathematical challenge than in previous years.

• Since the level of challenge is increased across the board, the balance of entries at higher or foundation has changed – no longer is foundation just for the lowest attaining pupils - we expect just over half of the year group to be entered at foundation level (target grade up to 5).

Tiering – further information

All students will be entered at either Higher or

Foundation tier

Higher tier covers grades 9 8 7 6 5 4

Foundation tier covers grades 5 4 3 2 1

Format of

GCSE examinations

• AQA 8300

• 100% examined (no coursework)

• THREE written exams (was previously 2)

• Paper 1 Non calculator (80 marks) 1 hour

• Paper 2 Calculator (80 marks) 1 hours

• Paper 3 Calculator (80 marks) 1 hours

Since there is more focus on calculator skills than previously, it is now more important than ever that all pupils own and know how to use a scientific calculator – we recommend the Casio 85GT.

In our experience so far..

• Greater focus on problem-solving.

• No longer is it enough to be able to e.g. factorise a quadratic expression – questions now require candidates

to be able to translate wordy problems to mathematical

models, and then to solve them.

• Requirement to provide clear mathematical arguments.

• Pupils need to be able to explain – not just follow learned

procedures. Understanding why as well as how is more

important than ever.

• New added content at both Higher and Foundation level.

• More to learn, but also more opportunities to show off!

• Fewer formulae provided. (students expected

to remember them!)

Progress monitoring and

homework

• Progress monitored by teacher through half-

termly assessments (these will be extracts of

practice exam papers), class work and

homework

• Mock exam in November/December.

• All these will be used to ensure correct tier of

entry

Homework

• Set every week

• Designed either to reinforce content taught

in lessons, prepare for future lessons or

provide consolidation of topics covered in

the past.

• May be online (hegarty maths) or written

tasks set.

• Sufficient time will be given to enable pupils

to seek help from their teacher if required –

for this reason attempting homework

the night before it is due to be

submitted is not a good idea.

Further maths GCSE

• The majority of pupils will concentrate on

maximising their GCSE Maths grade.

• AQA Level 2 Certificate in Further Maths is

offered as a ‘Stretch and Challenge’ opportunity to extend some pupils in Sets 1.

• Lessons take place after school with pupils

required to work independently.

• At the moment, all pupils are invited to attend

– we will make more formal entry decisions in

light of mock results following

November/December mocks – it may not

benefit some pupils to be distracted from GCSE

Maths.

Exam preparation

• Revision guides and resources will be available to buy from student services. Letters regarding revision guides have been sent home.

• Scientific calculator available from Student Services.

• Practice, practice, practice makes perfect.

• Work through exam papers.

• Use Hegarty maths to work on ‘weak’ topics.

• Work through the booster materials on www.corbettmaths.com.

• Seek help from any maths teacher.

What can you do to help?

‘I was never very good at Maths…’

Be positive

What can you do to help?

• Act as a “Project Manager”

• Know your child’s target grade

• Be positive & supportive

• Help them to organise themselves

• Get your child to explain

The student dashboard.

We always praise students for how much effort and hard work they

put in!

This donut summarises

HegartyMaths and so allows students to

visualise their progress

Why would a student log in?

To complete homework or

tasks set by the teacher

To focus on deliberate practice

To work independently

for revision purposes

Teachers using the site for flip

learning

Where do the 619 skills come from?

HegartyMaths is first broken

down into the 6 strands of

maths (in the new 1-9)

Behind each strand sits a list

of topics

Each topic contains a list

of unique skills. These are the

619!

A skill. What is it?

The video. Recorded by Colin

Hegarty, each video follows the same

pattern: • 10 mins long

• Start with prior knowledge

• Followed by a carefully scaffolded

sequence of minimally different example questions

The assessment.

A unique aspect of HegartyMaths is

that the video and quiz work in

perfect synergy with each other.

Students can always find a

similar example in the video!

Each one of the 619 skills on HegartyMaths is made up of 3 unique components!

The Building blocks.

These are a unique list of prerequisite

knowledge skills. The student can

review first if they think a skill done in the past badly

may prevent them mastering this

skill.

Check out the building blocks

Watch video in full Complete quiz

The recommended route.

Ensures that the student has

required prerequisite

knowledge and skills are in place in order to get 100% on this

task

Whilst watching the video, it’s

essential that the student makes hand written notes in their

exercise book to really keep them

engaged throughout and

for revision purposes later!

Get 100%! We’ll show you how

next…

The quiz.

Up to 50 minimally

different Q’s for each scaffold. Set a task to a class and every student will get different Q’s!

Interactive keyboard. This is

reactive and works perfectly

on tablets, smart phones etc. It allows you to

type real maths!

Ability to watch video (as a pop-

up) from this page!

Top Tip! We think it’s

really important for students to

write the questions and

working out into an exercise book and mark as they

go along

The quiz.

Up to 50 minimally

different Q’s for each scaffold. Set a task to a class and every student will get different Q’s!

Interactive keyboard. This is

reactive and works perfectly

on tablets, smart phones etc. It allows you to

type real maths!

Ability to watch video (as a pop-

up) from this page!

Top Tip! We think it’s

really important for students to

write the questions and

working out into an exercise book and mark as they

go along

Right or wrong?

If a student has tried hard

themselves but are still

struggling, they can type a

comment to their teacher

We always give students 2

attempts to get the answer

correct before marking as incorrect

We populate the correct answer so the student can mark their

book as they go

Fix Up 5 – ’The most perfect example of gap analysis’

What is Fix Up 5 all about?

Scientific research shows the way to improve the fastest is to practise things you couldn't do in the past - this is called deliberate practice.

Fix Up 5 will give you 5 questions you got wrong before to repeat and improve on.

Great mathematicians learn from their mistakes.

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks

once, but I fear the man who has practiced one

kick 10,000 times”

- Bruce Lee

Fix Up 5

From the data we have, we’re

going to populate a

student with 5 random

questions (not linked by a

strand/topic/skill) but ones that she previously got incorrect!

Fix up 5 focuses on deliberate

practice. Deliberate

practice is all about focusing

on the skills that you’re bad at, rather than the ones which you find the easiest.

Behind the scenes, we

record every single question that a student

ever gets incorrect!

Fix Up 5 – the questions.

As with every question on the site, the student has the ability to link back to the

original skill video

This is the exact question this

student previously got

incorrect

Questions