December 2024 Maths and Statistics Update
Dear Colleagues,
As we approach the festive season, I'm reminded of one of my proudest achievements in teaching which was establishing a Maths Advent competition that ran across the whole school thoughout December every year.
Every day, a maths puzzle was set and students could submit their answers into a prize draw with chocolate santas and reindeer being delivered to the lucky winners in form time the next day. The staff even took part with a daily "Maths Champion" being announced who got to wear a very conspicuous gold badge for the day!
It was a lot of fun and I'd greatly encourage anyone to give it a go. It certainly got the whole school talking about maths for the entire month!
Planning for Y11 intervention
To help you relax fully into the holidays, we've collated some resources that you can print off now so your Y11 intervention is all set up and ready to go when you return in January.
Our six-week revision programmes have been designed to make use of Pearson’s resources from the Maths Emporium in a structured manner whilst supporting students by providing information about both their strengths and weaknesses.
There are three versions:
- A student guidance document that includes a revision list and a handy weekly checklist to keep them on track throughout their revision.
- Six weekly task booklets for students to work through independently that provide opportunities to practice fluency style questions and exam questions. They are organised in a ramped manner to build success and confidence. These are available as questions with mark schemes or as two separate documents so you can choose what to print/send to your students. Each week there is a Bonus task (a past paper of your choice) for students to complete under certain time constraints.
- The teacher guidance also includes a checklist to aid you in structuring and organisation, a spreadsheet for scores to be collated that will provide you with performance statistics for some of the completed tasks and links to our themed papers and topic tests to enable you to identify and address areas that need improvement.
These are sets of practice papers comprised of questions that students working at the target grade were successful with.
Below are some suggestions for how you could use these with students:
- print each paper off as a booklet for students to work on in form time / intervention or as part of 'do now' time at the start of lesson
- snip questions to use as part of revision lessons or for retrieval practice starters
Key dates and deadlines
As always, we have information on key dates and deadlines including details of all training events taking place this month.
Key dates and deadlines for December 2024
2 December - AS Mathematics (8MA0) mock set 3 available on the Maths Emporium and the qualification website. Mock set 4 available under silver padlock.
2 December - GCSE Maths November 2024 worked solutions with student friendly guidance available on the Maths Emporium
3 December - Training event: A Level Further Maths (Core Pure only) Summer 2024 Marking Guidance
3 December - Training event: GCSE Maths Using Performance Data to Identify Areas of Improvement and Deciding Next Steps
10 December - GCSE Maths November 2024 mark schemes available
10 December - Training event: GCSE Statistics Deep Dive into Lower Performing Topcis
11 December - Training event: Maths in Context Summer 2024 Marking Guidance
16 December - GCSE Maths November 2024 printer-friendly papers and mark schemes available on the Maths Emporium
17 December - International GCSE November 2024 mark schemes available
Key information and new releases by qualification
Key information, new releases of resources and details of upcoming training events can be found for each qualification in the sections below.
GCSE (9-1) Mathematics
GCSE Mathematics FAQs
To enhance our teacher support, we have published a GCSE Mathematics FAQ page with answers to some of your most commonly asked questions on a range of topics from calculator guidance to tiering support.
Formulae sheets
Ofqual have confirmed that students taking GCSE maths exams in 2025, 2026 and 2027 will be provided with formulae in the form of an Exam Aid.
The Exam Aids for the 2025 exams will be the same as those used in 2024 and will be published on our website by 6 December 2024.
November exam feedback
We want to know what you and your students thought of the November 2024 GCSE maths papers
Your feedback will play a vital role in shaping the future of our qualifications and assessments. Your input will be shared with our senior examiners and across our subject teams to help us continuously improve future assessments and enhance the exam experience for students.
Share your feedback
Upcoming training events
GCSE Maths: Using Performance Data to Identify Areas of Improvement and Deciding Next Steps
3 December 2025, 16:00-17:00 BST
Pathways to Support Progression to GCSE Maths and Grade 4
Session 2: Pathways, Intervention Strategies and Resources
22 January 2025, 16:00-17:15 BST
Recent training events
Pathways to support progression to GCSE and grade 4: Session 1
Session 1 of this 2-part course took place on 28 November and looked in detail at the various Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2 qualifications in mathematics available to learners, including the Entry Level Certificate, Edexcel Awards and Functional Skills.
Watch a recording of session 1
Session 2 will take place on 22 January 2025 and can be booked using the link in the section above.
GCSE (9-1) Statistics
Join our Facebook group connecting teachers of statistics
We’re excited to announce the launch of our teacher group for those teaching our GCSE and A level Statistics qualifications.
Created to give Statistics teachers a private, professional space to discuss teaching and learning ideas and ask general questions, the community is run by your Statistics Subject Advisor, Vicky Wood.
Upcoming training event
GCSE Statistics: Deep Dive into Lower Performing Topics
10 December 2024, 16:00-17:00 BST
Our credible specialist Mel Muldowney from JustMaths uses past exam questions to showcase teaching ideas for topics (both foundation and higher) that were highlighted in the Summer 2024 insights session as areas of improvement nationally.
Mel will also highlight resources that can help with these topics.
Recent training event
In our recent GCSE Statistics: Summer 2024 Marking Guidance event, our credible specialist Mel Muldowney from JustMaths looked at the principles of marking Pearson Edexcel GCSE Statistics, focusing on Summer 2024.
Level 2 Extended Mathematics Certificate
Entries for 2025 exam
A reminder that centres can now submit entries for the first assessment series of the Level 2 Extended Maths Certificate.
Entries for the summer 2025 series of the Level 2 Extended Maths Certificate can be made via Edexcel Online.
Formulae sheet
We are pleased to confirm that students sitting the Level 2 Extended Mathematics Certificate will not be required to memorise formulae in line with GCSE Mathematics.
Students will be provided with a formulae sheet in the form of an insert to the exam. The content of this sheet will be the same as for GCSE Mathematics, with some small adjustments to reflect where there are differences in content.
Students will be provided with the formula for the Trapezium Rule in the body of the question should it be needed.
The formulae sheet for the 2025 Level 2 Extended Mathematics Certificate exams will be published on the website in December 2024.
Go to the Level 2 Extended Maths Certificate qualification page
Recent training event
Level 2 Extended Maths Certificate: Extended Topics from GCSE
In this session which took place on 27 November, Nicola Woodford-Smith looked in depth at two of the more unfamiliar topics of Level 2 Extended Mathematics Certificate (EMC), equations of circles and the trapezium rule, to help bridge the learning and progress from GCSE to EMC and then into A Level maths. The session looked at the similarities and differences in the questions across the qualifications as well as sharing teaching strategies and showcasing available resources.
AS/A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics
AS and A Level Mathematics FAQs
To enhance our teacher support, we have published an A Level Mathematics FAQ page with answers to some of your most commonly asked questions on a range of topics from calculator guidance to content specification.
8MA0 Mock Sets 3 and 4
The 8MA0 AS Mathematics mock set 3 will be uploaded onto the Maths Emporium on 2 December 2024. This mock set was previously only available on the Pearson website under a silver padlock.
Download mock set 3 from the Maths Emporium
On the same day, 8MA0 AS Mathematics mock set 4 will be released onto the qualification website under a silver padlock. You can find mock set 4 under 'mock papers' in exam materials using the link below.
Upcoming training events
A Level Further Maths (Core Pure only): Summer 2024 Marking Guidance
3 December 2024
16:00 - 17:00 BST
In this session we will be providing guidance on the finer points of marking A Level Further Core Pure examinations, using the 2024 exam series as the basis of the examples.
We will be looking at the key principles behind the structure of the marks in the mark schemes and giving examples of student responses.
Recent training events
A Level Maths: Summer 2024 Marking Guidance
This session took place on 19 November 2024.
Advanced Extension Award
What is the Advanced Extension Award (AEA)?
The aims and objectives of the AEA qualification are to:
- challenge the most able advanced level students by giving them opportunities to demonstrate a greater depth of understanding, analysis, evaluation and problem solving than that required at GCE Advanced level with no additional study or learning required
- be accessible to all able students studying for GCE Advanced Level in Mathematics
- help differentiate between the most able students, particularly in subjects with a high proportion of A grades at GCE Advanced Level in Mathematics.
The Pearson Edexcel Advanced Extension Award in Mathematics is assessed by one externally-examined examination paper (3 hours, 100 marks) available in May/June in every year.
The paper may contain questions on any topic from GCE Advanced Level in Mathematics and calculators must not be used in the assessment. It will consist of about seven questions. Questions may be multi-step with confidence building parts or unstructured. Some may be of an unusual nature that might include topics from GCSE and logic based items. Questions may be open-ended.
Seven percent of the marks will be assigned for style and clarity of mathematical presentation. The examiners will seek to reward elegance of solution, insight in reaching a solution, rigour in developing a mathematical argument and excellent use of notation.
Getting Started Guide
Our handy Getting Started Guide includes links to the key resources to help you getting started with teaching this qualification.
A Level Statistics
Join our Facebook group connecting teachers of statistics
We’re excited to announce the launch of our teacher group for those teaching our GCSE and A level Statistics qualifications.
Created to give Statistics teachers a private, professional space to discuss teaching and learning ideas and ask general questions, the community is run by your Statistics Subject Advisor, Vicky Wood.
Maths in Context (Level 3 Core Maths)
Upcoming training events
Mathematics in Context: Summer 2024 Marking Guidance
11 December 2024
16:00 - 17:00 BST
In this session we will be providing guidance on the finer points of marking Mathematics in Context examinations, using the 2024 exam series as the basis of the examples.
We will be looking at the key principles behind the structure of the marks in the mark schemes and giving examples of student responses.
International GCSE Mathematics
Word versions of the November 2024 exam papers are available on the Maths Emporium from early December.
International A Level Mathematics
There are no updates for International A Level Mathematics this month.
You can find all information and resources to support the teaching of this qualification on the qualification page.
Functional Skills
Functional Skills "Elf on The Shelf"
Pearson's Elf On A Shelf will be back for its fifth year this year.
We will be sharing new teaching and learning resources, exemplar materials, retired assessments, blogs and videos. Watch out for it on LinkedIn.
FAQs
A reminder that you can find all answers to the most commonly asked questions about Functional Skills on our FAQ page.
All resources to support the teaching of Functional Skills Mathematics can be found on our resources page and accessed using the link below.
Edexcel Awards in Mathematics
Recent training event
Pathways to support progression to GCSE and grade 4: Session 1
Session 1 of this 2-part course took place on 28 November and looked in detail at the various Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2 qualifications in mathematics available to learners, including the Entry Level Certificate, Edexcel Awards and Functional Skills.
Watch a recording of session 1
Session 2 will take place on 22 January 2025 and will focus on pathways and intervention to support progression to GCSE grade 4. You can find more information in the section on GCSE Mathematics.
Resources
All resources to support the teaching of the Edexcel Awards can be found under the qualification cabinet on the Maths Emporium and accessed using the link below.
Entry Level Certificate
Recent training event
Pathways to support progression to GCSE and grade 4: Session 1
Session 1 of this 2-part course took place on 28 November and looked in detail at the various Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2 qualifications in mathematics available to learners, including the Entry Level Certificate, Edexcel Awards and Functional Skills.
Watch a recording of session 1
Session 2 will take place on 22 January 2025 and will focus on pathways and intervention to support progression to GCSE grade 4. You can find more information in the section on GCSE Mathematics.
FAQs
A reminder that you can find all answers to the most commonly asked questions about Entry Level Certificate on our FAQ page.
All resources to support the teaching of Entry Level Certificate can be found under the qualification cabinet on the Maths Emporium and accessed using the link below.
Lastly, I'd just like to wish you all happy holidays! I hope that you enjoy a restful break and consume all the mince pies you desire.
As always, if you need any support in delivering any of the above qualifications, you can contact me using the links in the contact box below.
Best regards
Vicky Wood
Subject Advisor for Maths and Statistics (UK)
Subject advisor
Vicky Wood
Mathematics and Statistics - UK centres
