Making the Grade GCSE Maths from D to C...

orwhat happens to a

student who doesn’t!Julia Smith

Twitter: @tessmaths

makingthegraded2c.wordpress.com

•40% of students do not achieve a C grade at GCSE in school

•90% of them will still not achieve a C grade by the age of 19yrs

•In maths, at the 1st post-16 resit only 6.4% will achieve a C grade - less than 1000 students nationally

Have I got news for you...

• 279,000 young people left school in 2012/13 without a C grade

• Only 17,600 students gained a C grade in English resit and 21,000 gained maths

• 14% achievement rate after a whole year

• yet the DfE say from a recent survey...• achieving 5 A* to C GCSE grades,

including the vital English and maths subjects, adds £80,000 to a student’s earnings over their lifetime

The Facts are...

• Over 1/4 million students leave school without a C grade in GCSE maths & English...most will progress to college

•With increased school participation rates and the more rigorous GCSE an expected 75,000 extra students coming in FE from September 2015

•Grade 4 or 5?

• FE is resilient and proactive

• FE faces the challenge head on with aggressively obstinate students who don’t want to be there... and often aren’t

• FE Vocational Staff are teaching GCSE

• FE is not a miracle worker...

• Teach them really really well

• Make them really really bright

The Further Education Sector

n 1/2 the adult population demonstrate the numeracy skills of primary school children

n In the Skills for Life survey, almost 16 million people have maths skills below the lowest GCSE level - for English it’s 5 million...

n and yet 57% of employers rate core English & maths critical to recruitment

The Landscape

• Nationally, relatively little outstanding practice exists in teaching of English and mathematics in FE.

To motivate learners and help them develop the skills in English and mathematics that they may have struggled to gain in the past, we should:

Give English and mathematics a very high profile across all learning programmes and all types of provision

From Teaching, learning and assessment in further education and skills

What works and why, September 2014, No. 140138 10

What did Ofsted say...

n New specialist staff - there are none! National shortage & plenty of good opportunities in schools

n Avoid it - all students with a D grade GCSE have to resit to achieve a C grade

n Allow students to fail again - it will mean failing their course and ultimately affects funding

n Government intent on every student studying maths to age 18 - Functional Skills, GCSE and new Core Maths

n FE agrees with the sentiment...but the practicalities...

What can’t we do...

• Run a bespoke Revision Year• GCSE Express• Growth Mindset• Higher Paper• Maths Leaders• Be creative

• So what do we do?

• Homework• Mathematical Association

Postcards• QR reader for Starters• Twitter, Moodle & Edmodo• Whole Organisational Approach• Retrain Vocational Staff

• So what do we do?

• Case Studies• Maths/English Leaders Awards• Resource Guide• Conference Session Videos• Top Tips

• Please take a look and share with others

• makingthegraded2c.wordpress.com