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Total Maths Newsletter

Hello Colleague

We hope you’re well and that the summer 2025 exam series is running smoothly for you and your students. 😊

We’re always keen to hear your feedback about any aspects of our qualifications and assessments. Please do let us know your thoughts about any of this summer’s assessments using our post-exam surveys. You could win a £50 e-voucher if you do.

To support your students through their exams, our range of support includes revision ideas and tips to manage stress. We also share tips and advice for students on Instagram and TikTok. Ofqual has also published a blog of hints and tips on dealing with pressure, and the JCQ has produced a one-page checklist for students on exam day. Our blog on maths anxiety can help support your students at exam time too. Please do share these with your students.

As ever, if you have any queries or if we can give you any further support, please get in touch. 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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2025 exams and formulae sheets
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Question papers from the summer 2025 series are being published on Teach Cambridge a few working days after each exam.

If you don't have a Teach Cambridge account yet, your exams officer will be able to set you up.

 

In the summer 2025 series, remember that:

  • GCSE (9-1) Maths students will receive a formulae sheet in each exam,
  • Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths students will receive an extra formulae sheet in the exam (in addition to the standard formulae sheet on page 2 of the question paper).

For more information on 2025 formulae sheets, please see our subject update.

The 2025 exam timetables and key dates remain available from our website.

Teach Cambridge
Discover more about our GCSE (9-1) Maths

If you’re considering our GCSE (9-1) Maths qualification, we have online events coming up before the end of term to give you all you need to know.

To discover everything in a single session, book a place on our 60-minute ‘Choosing OCR GCSE (9-1) Mathematics’ webinar on Tuesday 24 June. The webinar will cover our assessment structure, content, specification, support & resources and more, as well as giving you the chance to ask any questions you need.
GCSE Maths for all

Alternatively, book onto our shorter 30-minute showcase webinars, which will cover the same content as the above webinar, but split over 3 separate sessions. These are scheduled in early July and will in turn cover the assessment structure, the content & specification, then finally support & resources. You’ll also have chance to ask any questions that you wish. Book onto all 3 showcases, or just 1 or 2, as you need. Recordings of each showcase are also available at the link above, if you’re unable to attend any of these sessions.

60-minute webinar 30-minute showcases
Core Maths resources
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We recently published a couple more Core Maths Section Check In tests. These latest ones are on the ‘Graphs’ and the ‘Probability’ content. They can be downloaded now (along with our other Core Maths Section Check In tests) from Teach Cambridge for both Core Maths A and Core Maths B, under ‘Teaching’ and then ‘Progress checking’.

 

We’d also like to share some maths resources about climate change, developed by MEI in association with The Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS). Some of these have been designed for Core Maths and may be useful in your lessons. Download them from the RMetS website.

For more Core Maths support, please see the article below on our upcoming Teacher Networks.

Teach Cambridge
Blogs

Sophie Carr from the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) has recently written our guest blog ‘Data skills are life skills: why we need stats in the classroom’. In this blog, she discusses how the maths curriculum could better equip young people with the statistical and data skills they need for daily life. Sophie highlights the work that the RSS have been doing as part of thinking about potential qualification reform and also shares how you can get involved too.
Person reading our blog on a tablet

Steven has also updated his blog on ‘recognising the issue of maths anxiety’, focusing on ideas to support students dealing with anxiety in the maths classroom, but also in maths across the curriculum.

Maths blogs
Upcoming maths Teacher Networks
Teacher Networks

Our final few Teacher Networks for this academic year are coming up later this month. Our Teacher Networks are completely free to attend and are set up to bring maths teachers together, so we can share relevant updates, answer your questions, discuss best practice collectively and more. Book your place now to any of the below.
  • Wednesday 18 June – Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths (online) – We’ll look back at the summer 2025 question paper and ideas for supporting students’ progress from GCSE (9-1) Maths to A level Maths.
  • Tuesday 24 June – A Level Maths (online) – We’ll review the summer 2025 question papers and how to support student transition from GCSE (9-1) Maths to A level Maths.
  • Wednesday 25 June – GCSE (9-1) Maths (online) – We’ll reflect over the past year and look ahead to the next, as well as share our latest resources update and an overview of the support that will be available from results day.

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, please let us know.

We’re also pleased to say that AMSP will be running an online Core Maths network for our qualifications on Thursday 26 June. Booking is available for this on the AMSP website.

Maths Teacher Networks
Conferences

Later this month we’ll be heading out across the country to a range of maths conferences, meetings and events.

First up is La Salle #MathsConf38, which we’re one of the key sponsors for. This takes place on Saturday 21 June at Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy, near Birmingham.

We then have two conferences on Monday 30 June. We’ll be at the Yorkshire Ridings Maths Hub Summer Conference in York and then a couple of the team will also be over in Liverpool at the NW Post-16 Maths Conference.
Person reading our blog on a tablet

We’ll also be at the MEI Conference at Keele University on Thursday 3 – Friday 4 July. We’re again one of the sponsors for the MEI conference and we’ll also be running 2 sessions in the programme. In Session A on Thursday morning, Neil will be delivering ‘GCSE (9-1) Mathematics assessments: What we can learn from candidate performance so far’. Later on Thursday in Session D, Steven will run ‘A Level Mathematics assessment: What we can learn from candidate performance so far’. In both sessions, we’ll review student performance in the respective qualifications, identifying what students have performed well in and what has been a challenge, to help inform your teaching.

Book your places now and if you’re at any of the above, come over to our stand to talk about maths, future qualifications, resources, support and more. We’ll have things on the stands too for you to takeaway, so we look forward to seeing you there…

Is there anything that you’re running or hosting that you’d like us to attend or run a session for? Perhaps a professional development day for your Trust or a regional meeting for centres across your area? Get in touch and let us know how we can support your event. 😊

Get in touch

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