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Total Maths newsletter
Total Maths Newsletter

Hello Colleague

Welcome back, we hope you had a wonderful summer and that the new term's started well. 😊

In case you missed it, we recently shared with you some exciting changes, we've now become Cambridge OCR. Along with our new name, logo and look is a new promise to you: We're committed to making assessment straightforward, so every student has the chance to thrive and get the results they deserve.

Discover how we’re making assessment straightforward. To find out where and when we're introducing our new name, see our website and FAQs.

If you’re planning on entering students in the November 2025 GCSE (9-1) Maths series, the entry deadline is Saturday 4 October. The exam timetable for the series is available from our key dates and timetables webpage.

To help you prepare students for 2026 assessments in GCSE (9-1) Maths and Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths, we’ve just published the 2026 versions of the formulae sheets. The formulae sheet design and the approach to formulae in 2026 are both unchanged from the last few years. Please see our recent subject update for more information and links to the sheets.

We’re currently recruiting for an author for Core Maths B H869/02 (‘Statistical Problem Solving’) question papers. If you’re interested, find out more on our website and search 'Core Maths'.

As always, if you ever 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, Ruth, Caroline, Amy and Steven - your Cambridge OCR Maths Subject Advisors 

maths@ocr.org.uk
@OCR_Maths
01223 553998
OCR-Newsletter-Box-shaddow
Summer 2025 results and post-results support
Student sat at a desk

Summer 2025 results information for our maths qualifications is available from our ‘Results for general qualifications’ page. For detailed analysis of your own centre’s performance with comparisons against the national data, visit our Active Results platform.

If you or your students have any concerns about a result, please see our post-results services page. This includes a useful infographic summarising the options available and important deadlines.

The deadline for downloading scripts from Access to Scripts and applying for reviews of results, missing/incomplete results or late certification from summer 2025 is Thursday 25 September.

Mark schemes and examiners' reports (and Analysis Grids for GCSE (9-1) Maths) are available on Teach Cambridge now, along with the question papers. Please keep these secure by not posting them or solutions anywhere publicly, many centres will be using these papers for mocks in the coming year.

Results information
GCSE (9-1) Maths kinematics content update

Following your feedback, we’ve updated how we’ll set questions on the kinematics equations in GCSE (9-1) Maths from summer 2026 onwards.

Previously, we’ve required students to have memorised what each letter (term) in these equations means (i.e. that ‘u’ is the initial velocity, ‘v’ is the final velocity, ‘a’ is the acceleration, etc.).
Students in lesson

From summer 2026, candidates will no longer need to have memorised what each term means. Instead, this information will be provided for candidates in any questions on the equations, along with the equations themselves.

We’ve updated content statement 6.02e in our GCSE (9-1) Maths specification, so it now additionally states ‘Knowledge of the definition of each letter will not be required’. The updated specification is available to download from our GCSE (9-1) Maths webpage and Teach Cambridge.

For more information, please see our subject update.

Read subject update
Core Maths question paper updates
Students in a lesson working together

We’re continually reviewing the accessibility of our assessment materials for all qualifications and have recently made a couple of updates to the style of Core Maths question papers. From the summer 2026 series onwards, question papers for Core Maths A & B will be written in Arial font and answer spaces will be dotted lines after each question part.

We’ve updated the sample assessment materials for both qualifications in line with this new style, which you can download now from the ‘Assessment’ webpages for Core Maths A and Core Maths B. To further help you and your students prepare, we’re also currently amending some of our recent past papers to be this new style. Keep an eye on future issues of Total Maths or @OCR_Maths to hear as soon as these are published.

For more information, please see our recent subject update.

You can discover more about our work on accessibility in our blog.

Read subject update
Pre-release materials for Core Maths B and AS/A Level Maths B (MEI)

For Core Maths B (MEI), a new data set is now available from the ‘Pre-release materials’ area of both Teach Cambridge and the public qualification webpage. This data set will be assessed in the ‘Statistical problem solving’ H869/02 exam in summer 2027.

 
Students in lesson

The new data set is in Arial font (matching the amend to the question papers, please see the article above) and has an aligned column layout between the available .xlsx and .pdf versions. Please see our recent subject update for more information.

Large Data Set 10 for AS and A Level Maths B (MEI) is now available from the ‘Pre-release materials’ area of both Teach Cambridge and the public qualification webpage. It will be assessed in the AS Maths B (MEI) H630/02 exam in summer 2027 and the A Level Maths B (MEI) H640/02 exam in summer 2028. Large Data Set 10 is a refreshed version of Large Data Set 7.

For more information and support, please see the recent subject update, as well as MEI Curriculum Developer Keith Proffitt’s Large Data Sets blogs ‘Why three large data sets for the MEI specification?’ and ‘Getting started with large data sets’.

Core Maths subject update    Maths B (MEI) subject update
Professional development for 2025/26
Teachers talking

Our 2025/26 professional development courses are now available to browse. Head over to our maths professional development page for more information and to book your place now.

The courses below are coming up in the next few weeks:

 
  • Tuesday 23 September – Choosing GCSE (9-1) Maths
  • Wednesday 24 September – Starting To Teach A Level Further Maths A
  • Thursday 25 September – Starting To Teach GCSE (9-1) Maths
  • Tuesday 30 September – Starting To Teach A Level Maths B (MEI)
  • Monday 6 October – GCSE (9-1) Maths Foundation tier Summer 2025 exam review
  • Tuesday 7 October – Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths Summer 2025 exam review
  • Wednesday 8 October – Starting To Teach A Level Further Maths B (MEI)
  • Thursday 9 October – AS and A level Maths B (MEI) Summer 2025 exam review
  • Monday 13 October – Core Maths A & B Summer 2025 exam review
  • Tuesday 14 October – A Level Further Maths A & B (MEI) Pure content Summer 2025 exam review
  • Wednesday 15 October – GCSE (9-1) Maths Higher tier Summer 2025 exam review
  • Thursday 16 October – AS and A level Maths A Summer 2025 exam review

We’re also now making available on demand professional development courses. These can also be browsed on our maths professional development webpage, keep an eye out for more appearing in the future.

Materials from past courses are also available to you to download from Teach Cambridge. Select your qualification, then in the menu go to ‘Training’, then ‘Past training events’.

Maths professional development

ResearchED Cambridge, 25 October 2025 – get ready to dive into the latest education research

Join us for a day of insightful discussions and engaging presentations at our Cambridge office. Connect with fellow educators, researchers and education enthusiasts from around the world. 

Book your place today and get ready to explore the latest research and exchange ideas that will shape the future of education.

Book your place
Upcoming maths Teacher Networks

We’re running several of our popular Teacher Networks later this term. These are 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 for any of the below:

  • Wednesday 1 October – GCSE (9-1) Maths (online) – We’ll review student performance trends over time, to help you consider how to focus your teaching over the year ahead.
  • Thursday 2 October – A Level Maths (online) – We’ll review student performance trends across the A Level suites, as well as looking at accessibility and misconceptions.
  • Thursday 6 November – A Level Maths (online) – We’ll look ahead to mocks in this network, to help you plan for formative assessments.
  • Thursday 4 December – Level 3 FSMQ: Additional Maths (online) – We’ll review student performance trends over time, as well as looking at accessibility and misconceptions.

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.

Teacher Networks
New and updated blogs
Students in class

Steven has updated several of his previous blogs with the latest information and support for you.

In ‘AS/A Level Maths and Further Maths: the truth about calculators’, Steven looks at the calculator requirements for AS and A Level Maths and Further Maths, including where you can find additional support.

In ‘Mathematics assessment - the use of computer technology as part of special access arrangements’ Steven considers how the JCQ Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments 2025-2026 rules apply to maths qualifications.

Maths blogs

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