gcse maths information for parents - titus salt school€¦ · gcse maths information for parents...
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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