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Maths newsletter

Hello Colleague

We hope you had a fantastic break over half-term and are enjoying the sunnier days as we approach spring. 😊 

If you’ve entered candidates for GCSE (9-1) Maths exams in summer 2026, remember you still have until Tuesday 21 April to change students’ tier of entry.

We're currently recruiting summer 2026 examiners for AS / A Level Maths and AS / A Level Further Maths. It’s a great opportunity to develop your understanding of the qualification and the assessment process. Visit our assessor recruitment website and search for ‘mathematics’ to find out more and apply.

Provisional exam timetables for summer 2027 are available from our key dates and timetables webpage. If you’d like to raise any concerns before the final timetables are agreed, please do share your feedback via the email address on the webpage by Friday 20 March. 

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

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

maths@ocr.org.uk
@OCR_Maths
01223 553998
OCR-Newsletter-Box-shaddow
GCSE (9-1) Maths formulae sheets
Teacher working on a laptop

Ofqual has just launched a public consultation requesting your views on continuing to provide formulae sheets to students sitting GCSE (9-1) Maths (and Physics & Combined Science) exams from 2028 onwards throughout the remaining lifetime of the qualification.

The consultation closes on Monday 23 March at 23:45 and we encourage you to respond with your thoughts.

The outcome of this consultation will also determine whether we'll continue to provide Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths students with that qualification’s extra formulae sheet from 2028 onwards.

For links to the 2026 formulae sheets for GCSE (9-1) Maths and Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths, please see last term’s subject update. 

Ofqual formulae sheets consulation
Core Maths pre-release materials for 2026 exams

Pre-release materials are now available to download from Teach Cambridge for summer 2026 Core Maths A and Core Maths B exams. For more information, please see our recent subject update.

To support you with using the pre-release materials, AMSP are running dedicated discussion webinars. Book your place now on their website for either Wednesday 18 March at 14:00 or Thursday 19 March at 16:00.
Teacher pointing at a laptop

Core Maths pre-release subject update
Further support for the upcoming Core Maths question paper updates
Teacher working with two students

Last autumn we let you know that we’ll be making some formatting updates to Core Maths question papers from summer 2026 onwards.

To support you with these, Ruth has written a new blog exploring the changes and how they improve accessibility for candidates.

On top of this, we’ve also just published reformatted summer 2024 question papers and inserts on Teach Cambridge for Core Maths A and Core Maths B. These reformatted question papers exemplify the updated style that will appear in Core Maths A & B exams from summer 2026 onwards. In the main menu, go to ‘Assessment’ and then ‘Question papers and mark schemes’, any files labelled ‘new format from 2026’ are these new reformatted versions.

Reformatted sample assessment materials, summer 2025 question papers and candidates style answers are also available from Teach Cambridge now to help prepare your current students for the summer 2026 exams.

Core Maths updates blog

Core Maths A question papers   Core Maths B question papers
Upcoming maths Teacher Networks

We have a final couple of Teacher Networks still to come this term. These are completely free to attend and set up to bring maths teachers together, so we can share relevant updates, answer your questions, discuss best practice collectively and more.
Teachers talking

Book your place now:

  • Tuesday 17 March – GCSE (9-1) Maths (online) - To support revision for summer 2026, we’re giving you a second opportunity to hear about student performance in the summer 2025 series (this network will repeat material previously presented in our autumn 2025 networks).
  • Thursday 19 March – A Level Further Maths A & B (MEI) (face to face at Dulwich College, London) - We’ll focus on the Additional Pure / Extra Pure Further Maths options and teaching strategies to deliver their content.

Whether you’re already teaching a qualification or just interested in learning more, you’re very welcome to attend. We look forward to seeing you there.

If you’d be interested in running a future face-to-face network at your school or college, please let us know.

Teacher Networks
New maths blogs
Teacher working on a laptop

We’ve published several more blogs to support you with maths qualifications.

As mentioned above, Ruth has written ‘Making core maths assessments straightforward’ where she leads you through the new improvements we’ve made and how they support students.

Steven’s also published ‘A Level Maths: examiner feedback on modelling with exponentials and logarithms’ in which he looks at student performance on this content and shares ideas to support teaching.

Finally, Steven’s also updated his blogs discussing the range of practice material available for A Level Maths and A Level Further Maths.

Read our full range of maths blogs.

Maths blogs
Are you considering teaching our GCSE (9-1) Maths? Join our free webinars!

Next month, we're running free short webinars focusing on different aspects of our GCSE (9-1) Maths qualification. 

Whether you’re new to our qualification or thinking about moving to us, these webinars will give you all you need to get started. They’re also a great opportunity for you to ask us any questions you may have.
GCSE Maths for all

Upcoming webinars:

  • 📅 Understanding the Assessment, 13 April 2026, 4.00 - 4.30pm
  • 📅 Content and Specification Overview, 16 April 2026, 4.00 - 4.30pm
  • 📅 Support and Resources, 22 April 2026, 4.00 - 4.30pm

Book your place
We'd love to know your thoughts on a Critial Thinking qualification
Students in lesson

We're exploring the introduction of a small, free-standing qualification in Critical Thinking, and would love to know your thoughts.

This qualification could be part of a learner’s study programme and would carry UCAS tariff points.

 

Your views and opinions on this are important to us to make sure we can create and develop a new qualification that is purposeful, interesting and supports progression. Let us know what you think in our short survey. 

Let us know your thoughts

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