Maths GCSE Course Outline
Advanced Level 2
Awarding Body: Edexcel
Study GCSE Maths
GCSE Maths is a stimulating and rewarding course that is required by most universities and many employers. Additionally however, studying maths will greatly improve your numeracy which is a life skill that can have profound positive effects for you.
Having high levels of numeracy:
- Is linked with higher wages
- Will enable you to make sense of charts and information reported in the media
- Have financial capability – For example be able to select the cheapest loan, choose the most appropriate savings and insurance products and budget effectively.
Whereas low levels of Numeracy are shown to have extremely detrimental effects:
- Adults with low levels of numeracy are twice as likely to be unemployed. Currently 61% of adults lack health numeracy skills – which includes for example the ability to understand risks associated with disease, medicinal dosage and to manage their diet.
You need to have a grade 2 (E) already in GCSE Maths or to have passed a Level 1 Functional Skills Maths qualification.
All students require the usual mathematical equipment such as calculators, rulers, compasses etc.
Board – Edexcel
Taught 4 periods per week
Foundation Tier is taught linearly so is fully assessed in 1 non-calculator and 2 calculator exams at the end of the year.
All papers are 1 hour and 30 minutes. They are all out of 80 marks are carry the same weight towards your final grade.
On foundation, the highest grade you can get is 5. Most universities require a grade 4 as a minimum, some require a grade 5.
If you and your teacher feel you are strong enough, you can do your exam in November.
During the year you will have weekly homework, as well as half-termly “Tracker tests”. For these assessments you will receive a variety of feedback including written, and verbal feedback during lessons.
As well as learning specific mathematical skills and techniques, studying maths also equips you with many transferrable abilities such logic and reasoning skills, being able to break down complex problems into smaller parts and here in the St Charles maths department you will also greatly improve your confidence and team-working skills.
GCSE maths is required for almost all university degree courses and is also a requirement for many careers such as nursing, teaching, social work…
"I learned a lot that I was struggling with before I started the course. This course will hopefully help me progress into the career path I want to take."
"I learnt new topics this year and this will help me in university."
Here in the Maths department we have some distinctive features that we are very proud of:
Extensive support programme – We select some of our most successful A2 students to be paid to run workshops and mentor other students.
Access to a lot of resources online which has practice as well as extension materials
Using big whiteboards to work in groups which students find useful and fun.
Our maths team here at St Charles consists of Head of Maths Sam Amin and maths teachers Jessy John, and Avinash Bellyappa. All our teachers have maths degrees and many years of teaching experience.
Our Maths staff are always willing to offer support outside of class on top of our programme of support workshops.
Contact: Head of Maths Sam Amin
e: sam@stcharles.ac.uk
t: 020 8968 7755 ext: 243
