Keely Platten, Head of Maths at Bluecoat Aspley Academy in Nottingham, discusses why her school chose to work with AQA and shares her top tips for teaching Core Maths.
Published
Tuesday 9 Jan 2024
Author
Keely Platten
Bluecoat Aspley Academy is a large Church of England secondary school and sixth form located in the city of Nottingham. Part of Archway Learning Trust, the school has a diverse and comprehensive intake with students from a broad range of social and ethnic backgrounds. Currently, Bluecoat Sixth Form has over 450 students on roll.
We have been involved with the delivery of Core Maths (Level 3 Mathematical Studies) since its launch back in 2014, and have been teaching the AQA specification for the whole duration. We initially decided to choose AQA as we could see the real benefits and relevance of the course for our students, especially the financial content and how this would support and educate students for their future. We also liked that there was a variety of different optional units we could teach, including assessments for statistical techniques, critical path and risk analysis, and graphical techniques.
AQA also had the most detailed specification at the time of launching the course and were well ahead of all the other examination boards. Their route maps included lots of links to good resources and enabled us to have a real understanding of the content in the course.
Additionally, they also had excellent support for any queries we had when we were planning our scheme of learning and lessons, and this support has continued as the course has developed. Initially, AQA sent representatives out to our school to meet with us, so we could really get to grips with the course we were going to be delivering.
We have since changed all our mathematics qualifications over to AQA.
Currently we teach Core Maths as a one-year course, with three hours of face-to-face teaching a week.
We started in 2014 by delivering it over two years but found some students dropped the course once in year 13. This was usually due to the additional hours of teaching they had compared to their peers, and also because they wanted the additional study periods to concentrate fully on their three A-levels.
Also, by delivering it over one year, it gives any Level 2 resit students (who have already passed their GCSE Maths, but may only stay with us for one year) the opportunity to complete the course and further improve their maths knowledge.
When we first started teaching Core Maths, we began lessons with some of the GCSE content, as we felt it was essential that students had a good understanding of this so that they could build upon this knowledge during the course. However, we quickly reflected that this was not the best way to start as students just saw it as GCSE Maths again, and we didn't make the teaching of the content different enough from what they had already experienced.
Since then, we've always started with the topic of Fermi estimation, as this is completely new to students, promotes discussion and can penetrate through other topics which are taught. We then move quickly on to income tax, National Insurance, student loans and budgeting, as they find this part of the course a real eye opener. Some students seem to come with the assumption that if you earn £30,000 a year, you take home £30,000 a year.
All our Core Maths lessons are delivered by maths teachers. I'm aware in some schools non-specialists teach Core Maths, but we aim to have maths specialists delivering our lessons.
We do communicate regularly with other subject leads to ensure that we are supporting the maths element of their courses as well. For example, even though Spearman's rank is not on the Core Maths specification, we do still complete some work on this topic with students to support their geography lessons. For the past few years we have taught the 2B optional unit, so have liaised closely with the Business Studies teachers to talk about the difference and similarities in the way in which Activity Network Diagrams are taught and presented.
Strong recruitment for Core Maths is something which we have struggled with periodically over the years. We're aware that some sixth forms encourage all students to study either Core Maths or Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) as an enrichment, but this is not the model we use. We ensure that we promote the subject well to year 11 students by running taster sessions as well as speaking to them about the benefits of studying Core Maths in a dedicated assembly.
I regularly ensure that all maths teachers promote the subject to students when covering content which overlaps, or leads into Core Maths content. I also ensure that all other A-level teachers of other subjects are aware of the content of the Core Maths course so they can see how it will benefit and support the students they teach.
We also have copies of the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme (AMSP) promotional materials* to hand out to students at our open evening. This year I've also promoted Core Maths on identified subject pages of the sixth form prospectus, so hopefully this will promote some discussion with subject teachers at our open evening, and encourage students to come and have a chat with us.
There are Maths Hubs* all over the country which deliver 'New to Teaching Core Maths' and 'Core Maths Pedagogy' workgroups. I have been heavily involved with the Maths Hub since the launch of the Core Maths specifications and find these a really useful place to talk to other teachers, plan collaboratively and share resources.
If you are going to be teaching Core Maths, it is really important that you get support from your school to attend Maths Hub workgroups, as they are so valuable in the support you get from other teachers.
There are a number of Core Maths specialist leads across the country who are all experienced teachers of Core Maths who will be willing to support your school or college with the introduction of Core Maths.
The AMSP* runs specific specification network meetings where you can discuss and get support with teaching topics as well as develop your practice with teachers who are delivering the same specification as you.
Ensure that all staff in your department are aware of the content of the Core Maths course and promote the course to all students from year 7. Over the next few years, I would like to introduce some Core Maths lessons into both our KS3 and KS4 schemes of learning, so staff have the opportunity to promote and discuss the advantages of the course with students.
We have spent a lot of time over the years working on our year 10 and 11 taster sessions, making sure that they are accessible and engaging to all students, even if they've covered the Foundation GCSE course. We now deliver a session which covers a combination of Fermi estimation and sampling, using resources from Stats Medic*.
As previously stated, when we first started teaching Core Maths, we made the mistake of recapping GCSE content with our students and we felt that they lacked engagement with the course. Now, we start the course with a completely new topic, and find students are more engaged.
Additionally, we used to deliver the content in the same way we would have at KS4, as this is what we knew and were used to doing. We soon realised that we needed to make the data content of the course more relatable to real-life scenarios. So, we now teach this content within a project based around the amount of time our students spend on their phones.
One of the big concerns we had when we started the course was that there were lessons where students did not take notes or do written practice. As maths teachers, a lesson with no independent written work felt very strange but some Core Maths lessons were entirely discussion based. This was something which took us a while to feel comfortable with and realise they don't need to be making notes to learn.
All About Maths is a free AQA resource, which is an excellent starting place. There are route maps with links to relevant resources, practice questions separated out by topic, past papers and mock exam analysers.
Here are some other resources which I have found to be useful*:
One of the main aims of Core Maths is to prepare students for work, life and future employment. Often their knowledge of life outside of education is limited, especially with how much maths is used in a variety of roles and businesses.
We're fortunate that our local university runs 'Where maths meets the world of work' days. This involves employers coming in from different industries to explain how they use maths in their everyday roles. Students are then given the opportunity to attempt some of these tasks. These days are a real revelation for students, especially when they realise how much maths is used outside of the classroom.
Discover more on Core Maths (Level 3 Mathematical Studies) with AQA
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