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Maths newsletter header image of person using calculator
Total Maths Newsletter

Hello Colleague,

We hope the term is going well for you and you managed to have a restful break over half term.

Are you interested in marking with us? It’s a great opportunity to develop your understanding of both a qualification and the assessment process. We’re currently recruiting examiners for GCSE (9-1) Maths and Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths. If you’re interested, please see the final article below for further information.

At present we’re still awaiting confirmation from the Department for Education regarding formulae sheets and whether or not students can be issued them in the 2024 GCSE (9-1) Maths and Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths exams. As soon as we hear more we'll let you know. Please keep an eye on @OCR_Maths for the latest updates and information.

As ever, please get in touch if you have any queries or if we can give you any further support. Our role is to support you as you deliver our qualifications.

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

maths@ocr.org.uk
@OCR_Maths
01223 553998
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Autumn term Teacher Network meetings
teachers in a webinar

Thank you to those of you who attended our GCSE (9-1) Maths Teacher Network meeting earlier this week, we hope it was useful for you. Still to come later this month we have our free online Teacher Network events for Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths and for the A Levels.

At each, we’ll review summer 2023 student performance, give an overview of Teach Cambridge & upcoming support, offer you the chance to ask the questions that you need and more. Book your place now via our ‘Teacher Networks’ webpage.

  • Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths – Thursday 16 November 16:00-17:30
  • A Level Maths – Thursday 23 November 16:00-17:30
  • A Level Further Maths – Thursday 30 November 16:00-17:30.

Teacher Networks
Professional development for 2023-2024

We’ve many professional development courses coming up in the next few weeks. Head over to our maths professional development webpage to book your place now.

 
teachers looking at a computer screen
  • Fri 3 Nov - A Level Maths B (MEI) – Summer 2023 Exam Review
  • Mon 6 Nov - Efficient use of Technology in A Level Further Maths A and Further Maths B (MEI)
  • Wed 8 Nov - Starting to teach A Level Maths B (MEI)
  • Tue 14 Nov - GCSE (9-1) Maths (Foundation tier) – Summer 2023 Exam Review
  • Wed 15 Nov - Starting to teach GCSE (9-1) Maths
  • Thu 16 Nov - GCSE (9-1) Maths – Getting the most out of a calculator
  • Mon 20 Nov - Starting to teach A Level Maths A
  • Tue 21 Nov - Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths – Ask the Subject Advisor Q&A
  • Wed 22 Nov - Efficient use of Technology in A Level Maths A and Maths B (MEI)
  • Thu 23 Nov - GCSE (9-1) Maths (Higher tier) – Summer 2023 Exam Review
  • Mon 4 Dec - Exploring the Exam: A Level Maths A
  • Tue 5 Dec - GCSE (9-1) Maths (Foundation tier) – Summer 2023 Exam Review
  • Wed 6 Dec - Starting to teach A Level Further Maths B (MEI)
  • Thu 7 Dec - GCSE (9-1) Maths (Higher tier) – Summer 2023 Exam Review
  • Thu 14 Dec - Exploring the Exam: A Level Maths B (MEI).

Materials from past sessions are available to 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
JCQ updated calculator guidance and FAQs
JCQ logo

The JCQ’s 2023-2024 ‘Instructions for conducting examinations’ document is now available and includes a number of updates, including a revised section on the use of calculators in exams. This includes confirmation of the ‘exam mode’ feature available on some calculators.

Also available from the same page of the JCQ website is a new ‘FAQs – Using calculators’ document, providing further clarification.

Steven has also updated his popular ‘AS/A Level Maths and Further Maths: the truth about calculators’ blog to reflect this year’s JCQ instructions.

JCQ 'Instructions for conducting examinations'
New A Level Maths ‘Developing confidence with calculators’ resources

Now available on Teach Cambridge is a set of four teaching activities to support students in developing confidence and efficiency with their calculator (and technology more generally), for both A Level Maths A and A Level Maths B (MEI).

The four cover ‘Summary statistics’, ‘Trigonometry’, ‘Quadratics and cubics’ and ‘Statistical distributions’.
Teach Cambridge website

Once logged into Teach Cambridge, go to ‘Teaching’ and then ‘Activities’ to view them.

To further support both you and students with calculators, book a place at one of our ‘Enhancing your teaching’ professional development sessions.

Teach Cambridge
New blogs for A Level Maths
Person reading a blog post

In a series of four new blogs, Steven looks back at each of the four big changes introduced to A Level Maths at the last reform. In each, he discusses how examiners, teachers and students have handled the change, as well as ideas and sources of support for you.

In addition, Keith Proffitt has also updated his ‘Why three large data sets for the MEI specification?’ blog to cover Large Data Set 8 (to be assessed in summer 2025 for AS Level Maths B (MEI) and summer 2026 for A Level Maths B (MEI)).

Maths blogs
Examiner opportunities

Would you like to mark with us?

We're currently recruiting summer 2024 examiners for both GCSE (9-1) Maths and Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths.

Marking typically takes 2-3 weeks and takes place within May to July. Full training will be provided and it’s an excellent opportunity to work within the exam system, as well as develop your own understanding of a qualification and how it is assessed. Find out more and apply via the links below.
image of a male teacher

We also expect to be recruiting shortly for A Level Maths assessors. Create an account and sign up for job alerts to be notified about future opportunities.

Assessor recruitment

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