Julia Smith, National Teacher Trainer, and Author unlocks key insights to help you maximise your success in the post-16 GCSE Maths, November resits.
Published
Thursday 31 Aug 2023
Author
Julia Smith
Alongside these insights, you’ll also be able to access new, free resources just for post-16. Look at our route map and teaching guide to help you focus your teaching and set you and your learners up for success.
I meet many maths teachers who are engaged in the post-16 resit agenda. They’re a pragmatic bunch who rise to the re-engagement of the disengaged and pull out the stops to enhance achievement. Every September they consider whether to enter learners for the November GCSE Maths resit.
Outcomes in the resit arena are relatively low, percentage-wise, but for each learner who achieves Grade 4, it’s a 100% life-changing achievement. National Numeracy figures show earners with a Grade 4 earn more over their lifetime than someone without. Helping learners understand this is critical for success. figures show earners with a Grade 4 earn more over their lifetime than someone without. Helping learners understand this is critical for success.
Seminal research from Robey and Jones indicates three barriers to success in post-16 GCSE maths resits: lack of confidence; relevance to their own circumstances and previous negative learning experience. Acknowledging these and having a plan to address them is perfectly possible.
The November exam sitting is only open to entries from GCSE Maths resitters. The challenge is deciding who to enter as the entry timescale is short, as learners are realistically facing a six-week resit programme. The summer slump of not doing any maths needs to be overcome, fast.
There are several ways to decide on November entries
Let’s consider some essential elements to get off to a flying start.
Work has to be done outside of the classroom. One weekly lesson will not be enough. A little maths every day – just 20 minutes – will have a significant impact on outcomes and help consolidate lessons. Building good habits, from day one, is imperative, whether that be exam questions, watching recommended maths videos, fluency practice through maths games or working through tutorials and a revision guide.
Learners have seen the maths before; they just can’t do it all. Revision means to look again, perhaps with a different lens, to “re-vision” the maths so learners see it differently. Spend time addressing revision as a process. Have learners engage in deciding the revision methods that are right for them. Consider these options with learners:
50% of the foundation paper is based on AO1.
Students should:
Work on mathematical fluency and recall of facts. Focus on those first eight questions to maximise marks and minimise errors, they’re the easiest marks in each paper to get. Fluency underpins AO2 and AO3 so this work will support those areas.
Practice, practice, practice… not just until learners get the basics right but until they cannot get it wrong.
AQA has evidence which shows that when a learner comes across a question that they don’t like the look of, they become a page-turner. They won’t even attempt a part of it. The question context may also be unfamiliar and off-putting.
Good mathematical fluency and reasoning skills are the foundations of problem-solving. Explore the problem-solving resource for approaches and ideas.
All learners, at all levels, can improve their outcomes through good exam technique. The AQA document ‘Small things make a big difference (2.0 MB)’ can support this. Within this resource, there’s a focus on understanding the command words of questions.
There are many clues to what learners do well, and not so well. Using mock exam analysers provides another way to effectively concentrate on specific areas. Time and time again we read that learners struggle with the tools for the job – ruler, compass, protractor and using a calculator. As Doug Lemov says, ‘practice may not make perfect, but it may make permanent!’
Raising aspirations should always be a feature of our work. Why not ask those who received a Grade 4 to try again in June? Maybe a Grade 5, 6 or 7 is achievable. You never know, they might just do that!
To dive deeper into these insights, access our new, free teaching guide and six-week route map.