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Total Maths Newsletter

Hello Colleague,

We hope this term is going well for you and you’re also enjoying some warmer weather now. :) 

The summer 2024 exam series has now begun. Remember on our website we offer a range of help to support your students through their exams, including revision ideas and tips to manage stress. We also have a range of exam support for students on instagram.com/ocrexaminations. Please do share these with your students. Best wishes to all your students taking exams this year.

If you’re interested in marking with us, we still have spaces for summer 2024 examiners for A Level Maths A, A Level Maths B (MEI) and A Level Further Maths A. It’s a great opportunity to work within the exam system, as well as develop your own understanding of a qualification and how it’s assessed. 

As always, if you have any queries or we can give you any further support, do let us know. Our role is to support you as you deliver our qualifications. 

Neil, Amy, Steven, Ruth and Caroline - your OCR Maths Subject Advisors 

 

maths@ocr.org.uk
@OCR_Maths
01223 553998

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2024 exams and formulae sheets
student taking exam

For summer 2024, remember that:

Download the 2024 formulae sheets from the links above or from Teach Cambridge.

To help you prepare students, our ‘Formulae sheet top tips’ guides are available for both GCSE (9-1) Maths and Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths.

There are also formulae tests for GCSE (9-1) Maths and Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths available from Teach Cambridge. For GCSE (9-1) Maths, in the menu go to ‘Assessment’, then ‘Exams’, then ‘Practice materials’ and scroll to the bottom. For Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths, in the menu go to ‘Teaching’, then ‘Progress checking’, then ‘Section check in tests’.

For more information on 2024 formulae sheets, please see our recent subject update.

The 2024 exam timetables and key dates are available from our website.

2024 formulae sheets update

2024 professional development

We still have plenty of professional development courses between now and the end of the academic year. Book your place now over on our maths professional development webpage. The below are coming up in the next couple of months.

Teacher in a webinar making notes
  • Mon 24 June - Enhancing your teaching: Supporting progression from GCSE to A Level Maths B (MEI) 
  • Tue 25 June - Choosing OCR GCSE (9-1) Maths 
  • Wed 26 June - Enhancing your teaching: Supporting progression from GCSE to A Level Maths A 
  • Tue 2 July - Core Maths – Ask the Subject Advisor Q&A 
  • Tue 2 July - A Level Maths A – Ask the Subject Advisor Q&A 
  • Wed 3 July - A Level Maths B (MEI) – Ask the Subject Advisor Q&A 
  • Mon 8 July - Starting to teach A Level Maths A 
  • Wed 10 July - Starting to teach A Level Further Maths B (MEI) 
  • Thu 11 July - Starting to teach A Level Maths B (MEI)

Courses for the 2024-2025 academic year will be appearing on the page soon, so check back later for more. 

Materials from past sessions are available for you to download from Teach Cambridge. Select your qualification, then in the left-hand menu go to ‘Training’, then ‘Past training events’.

Maths professional development

Core Maths support
teacher and student

If youre considering teaching Core Maths next academic year, additional funding is now available for you. The DfE’sCore Maths Premiumwill provide an additional £900 to schools per Core Maths student.  

On Teach Cambridge you can access all our Core Maths A and Core Maths B resources and support. This includes the latest exam papers, mark schemes, examiners’ reports and practice papers, plus teaching resources such as schemes of work and candidate exemplars. Professional development is also available, such as our ‘Core Maths – Ask the Subject Advisor Q&A’ session on Tuesday 2 July (please see the article above). 

In addition to us, the Advanced Maths Support Programme (AMSP) can also support your centre in curriculum planning, teaching resources, subject knowledge sessions and professional development. Their website gives a good overview of what they can offer. 

Core Maths Premium

New maths blogs

Steven continues his exploration of the Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths content in two new blogs, Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths – introducing coordinate geometry and Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths – enriching GCSE trigonometry.  

Steven and Amy have also both published new blogs supporting the maths content in other subjects. Please do share them with your colleagues across other departments 

Person reading a blog

In Maths across the curriculum: revision tips for students, Steven takes a look at ideas to support students with the maths content included in exams for different subjects. 

Amy’s blog focuses on Maths anxiety: practical tips for supporting students. This blog aims to help teachers across the curriculum to identify signs of maths anxiety, along with some different ways to help students overcome it. 

If you have further ideas for ways to support students, please do share them. You can add a comment at the end of any of our blogs. 

Maths blogs

New maths resources
teachers at a computer

For GCSE (9-1) Maths we’ve just published a brand new set of Alternative Papers. This set is based on the November 2023 papers. They can be used for additional exam preparation with students, or used alongside the original question papers in order to monitor progress. Download them now from Teach Cambridge (you’ll find them in the ‘Exams’ section). 

We’ve also published the final few updated section check in tests for Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths. These updated tests now meet our latest accessibility guidelines and also each include an extra 5 brand new questions. Download them now from Teach Cambridge (in the menu go to ‘Teaching’, then ‘Progress checking’).

Following your requests, we have also created some brand new comprehension activities for A Level Maths B (MEI). There are 4 new activities, each with exam-style questions and mark schemes. Most importantly, they only rely on Stage 1 content, so are suitable to use with Year 12 students. Please visit Teach Cambridge to download them (in the menu, go to ‘Teaching’ and then ‘Teaching delivery’ to find the activities).

Casio Education has also published a series of new A1 posters on several of their popular calculator models, available free from their website. They’re also running free student revision webinars too for GCSE & A Level. 

Teach Cambridge

A Level Further Maths survey

We would like to hear views from maths teachers about A Level Further Maths qualifications and the support available for the different units, regardless of the specification you teach. 

We’ve created a short survey that should take no more than 5 minutes to complete. Please click the hyperlink or scan the adjacent QR code image. Your feedback is really valuable to us. 

A Level Further Maths survey

Maths survey May 2024