From the Chief Executive:

► The Smith Review of Post-16 Mathematics Education

► The new Level 3 Mathematics Support Programme

► AS/A level, Core Maths and GCSE update

September 2017

MEI Newsletter

Professor Sir Adrian Smith’s review of post-16 mathematics education was finally published on 20 July.

As MEI’s response shows, it was well worth waiting for. It is a wide ranging review, considering AS/A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics, Core Maths, GCSE Mathematics resit and the maths within technical/vocational qualifications. MEI provided a considerable amount of evidence to the review, and its recommendations are consistent with MEI’s views on the actions

Inside this issue:

Reformed AS Further Maths FAQs

3

MEI Staffroom 3

MEI Annual Conference 2017

4

Hodder eTextbooks

5

Free problem solving guide

5

Some blogs of interest

6

CPD for KS3 & 4 maths teachers

7

Problem Solving Matters 2017

8

Data Analysis Boot Camp

8

Comparable outcomes for students taking a reformed qualification

9

Integral & Ritangle 2017

10

Factris app 11

FMSP Update 12

In response to the Smith review, the Department for Education has already announced a new Level 3 Maths Support Programme (L3MSP), with £16 million of funding. The funding is initially for 2 years and it is hoped that the programme will be in place from April 2018.

The programme will support Core Maths and AS/A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics, building from the work

of the Further Maths Support Programme (FMSP) and the Core Maths Support Programme (CMSP).

It will aim to increase participation in these qualifications and to address inequality, focusing especially on raising participation in Opportunity Areas and other areas where participation is low, and on increasing girls’ participation.

MEI strongly supports the government’s decision to fund a new L3MSP and hopes to play a significant role in its work. We will ensure that the FMSP provides continued AS/A level Mathematics and Further Maths support for schools and colleges until the new Level 3 Mathematics Support Programme is in place.

The new Level 3 Mathematics

Support Programme

The Smith Review of Post -16

Mathemat ics Educat ion

that are needed to improve access to post-16 maths education, increase quality and raise participation. These include the need to address funding concerns and to tackle other barriers to raising participation, including regional variations and low participation by girls (currently, girls make up about 40% of A level Mathematics students, and about 30% of A level Further Mathematics students).

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MEI Newslet ter

AS/A level , Core Maths and GCSE update

If your school/college is teaching Core Maths this year, please make sure you are aware of MEI’s professional development programmes and extensive free teaching and learning resources.

For reflections on participation in AS/A level Mathematics, Further Mathematics and Core Maths, please see my latest NCETM Director blog post.

GCSE

Mathemat ics

The new, more demanding 9 – 1 GCSE Mathematics was taken for the first time this year. The overall grade profile was much the same as last year, but, as Stella Dudzic’s article explains, this should not be a surprise. I strongly support the content and aspirations of the new GCSE Mathematics, though I do not like the current structure of the examinations, which means those achieving the bottom two grades on either tier achieve very low marks and so are not able to show what they know.

The new GCSE Mathematics should form a better preparation for progression to the AS/A level Mathematics and I hope schools and colleges will encourage some students with grade 5 and all students with a grade 6 or better to consider taking AS/A level Mathematics. Please see MEI’s GCSE Mathematics news story for more thoughts and advice on this.

GCSE Mathemat ics re -si t

GCSE Mathematics resit continues to be a major cause for concern. This summer around 180,000 young people re-sat GCSE Mathematics and more than 130,000 of them failed to achieve a level 2 pass (grade C+ on the old GCSE, grade 4+ on the new). As I have said many times in this newsletter, this success rate indicates clearly that these students’ mathematical needs are not being met and, as a result, the public perception of mathematics is being damaged. The Smith review makes a clear recommendation to address this issue:

Recommendation 5: In view of the low GCSE success rates and the new GCSE requirements, the Department for Education should review its 16-18 resit policy with the aim that a greater proportion of students without a grade C or equivalent attain appropriate mathematical understanding by age 18. Specifically, there should be fresh consideration of appropriate curricula and qualifications for these students and the extent to which current policy incentivises these to be offered.

It is vital that this recommendation is acted upon urgently.

Charlie Stripp

Chief Executive

Email Charlie

AS/A leve l

A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics numbers continued to grow this summer, which is really excellent news. UK numbers for A level Mathematics grew from a little over 92,000 to well over 95,000. The growth in A level Further Mathematics was proportionally greater, with numbers passing 16,000 for the first time. More detail can be found in Kevin Lord’s article. While these increases are very positive, future increases in participation are by no means certain. At MEI we will do all we can to help ensure that these increases are sustained and built upon.

Much work has been done to prepare MEI’s Integral online teaching and learning platform, ready for the first teaching of the new AS/A levels this term. Please see Richard Lissaman’s article for more details.

Core Maths

The number of students taking Core Maths increased from just under 3000 in 2016 to around 5400 this year, which is very encouraging.

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Septem ber 2017

year 13 who usually take AS Further Mathematics by joining the year 12 class.

There is no requirement for students taking the reformed Further Mathematics qualifications to be taking AS or A level Mathematics (though the content is

There will be a sitting of the reformed A level in Mathematics in June 2018; this is designed specifically for students at schools and colleges which teach Mathematics in year 12 followed by Further Mathematics in year 13. However, some schools and colleges will have students in

assumed knowledge) so it is possible for students in year 13 to take the reformed AS Further Mathematics with legacy A level Mathematics but you should check with your exam board to make sure that there are no overlap issues associated with the choice of options in Further Mathematics.

Stella Dudzic

Programme Leader

(Curriculum and

Resources)

Email Stella

Can students take the reformed AS Further Mathemat ics i f they have taken or are tak ing the legacy A level Mathemat ics?

The MEI Staf f room - jo in the community!

►suggested schedules for teaching AS Maths, with different options depending on the circumstances in your school or college ►suggested schedules for teaching AS Further Maths. These are designed for schools teaching Maths and Further Maths in parallel, and there are 6 different versions, one for each of the 6 different combinations of optional teaching units in Further Maths. ►a scheme of work for Modelling with Algorithms ►the chapter headings for all the unpublished Hodder textbooks Schemes of work for the rest of first year of Further Maths and for year 2 of Mathematics are on the way. We have plenty of ideas for other resources which will be added later!

The ‘MEI Staffroom’ is an online place where teachers using the MEI AS/A levels can access free resources for the MEI A levels, support from MEI by phone, email or forum and support from a network of experienced teachers.

It is very much a work in progress. So far it has the following:

►a detailed scheme of work for the first year of the MEI A level Maths course. This has the first year course split into 21 sections; each one has learning outcomes, a commentary on the content and pedagogy, common misconceptions, prompts for mathematical thinking, suggestions for problem solving, technology etc. This is based on MEI’s general scheme of work for all Mathematics A levels.

The MEI Staffroom will be hosted on Integral, with registration through the registration form for the Further Maths Support Programme; if you indicate that you are teaching the MEI A levels then a further question about the MEI Staffroom will pop up. As a temporary measure the MEI Staffroom is hosted on a Google Drive, and access is through a registration form. (You can also find a link on the starting page for information about the MEI A levels on the MEI website.)

Once the MEI Staffroom is established on Integral it will have a forum for discussion, asking (and answering!) questions, and generally seeking help with any aspect of the MEI A levels. When teachers register with the MEI

Staffroom they are asked if they have taught MEI A levels previously and would be willing to support teachers in schools local to them. That means that if someone needs some help they can get in touch with MEI and we may be able to put you in touch with someone near to you willing to help. We are trying to create a community of teachers who teach the MEI A levels. Please do join!

Keith Proffitt

Curriculum

Developer

Email Keith

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MEI Newslet ter

First of all, thank you to all of you who came to the conference for taking part so actively and enthusiastically. Thank you also to the speakers; the feedback from delegates was overwhelmingly positive. Hand-outs from many of the sessions can now be downloaded from our website.

MEI Conference 2017 delegates talk about what they enjoyed in this short video.

MEI Annual Conference 2017

Many thanks to all of you who took the trouble to fill in the evaluation form at the conference. The comments below are taken from the 75 forms we received. It is always reassuring to receive positive feedback and we were delighted to see that many of you found the Conference stimulating.

► Many, many thanks to everyone at MEI for all the hard work and effort that

went into a brilliant, useful, well-managed, inspiring, informative,

principled, practical, illuminating, useful and fun conference

► Enriching and inspiring as always

► Everything is well prepared, well structured, appropriate and relevant.

A well thought-out balance of sessions available

► I have had a wonderful time! There were so many choices at each session

that I would have liked. It was hard to choose just one

► Brilliant conference and cannot think of anything to improve it (except

decaff tea at breakfast!)

► The MEI Conference is by far the best CPD I’ve ever been on

We always strive to make next year’s conference even better and are already planning ways to do this. Those of you who made suggestions, and included your email address, will have received an email from me describing what we hope to do next year as a result, such as developing the Conference App.

Bernard Murphy

MEI Programme

Leader (Teacher

Support)

Email Bernard

If you have any other ideas, please do let us know, and if you’d like to offer a session, now is the time to get in touch. I hope to see you at next year’s conference at Keele University from June 28 to 30. Sign up to be notified when registration opens.

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Septem ber 2017

Both the new GCSE Mathematics and the new A level Mathematics curriculum have a much greater emphasis on problem solving. If you are looking for some ideas for practical approaches to use in the classroom, you might like to take a look at the free problem solving guide we have developed for teachers. It includes lots of really useful suggestions and is accompanied by twenty-five example problems and worked solutions.

Free MEI Problem Solving Guide

Here are some examples of the problems included:

Janice Richards

Programme Leader

(Business

Development and

Communications)

Email Janice

MEI has worked with Hodder Education to produce a suite of print and digital textbooks for the new AS and A levels in Mathematics and Further Mathematics, with separate versions for the AQA, Edexcel, OCR(MEI) and OCR specifications.

We offer discounts for bulk purchases of all Hodder Education print maths AS/A level textbooks when you order through MEI, with additional discounts for Integral subscribers.

Details are available on our website.

The digital textbooks, available as Student eTextbooks and Whiteboard eTextbooks, link with Integral, MEI’s online teaching and learning platform for AS and A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics.

You can see how this works for this sample chapter.

Thinking of order ing textbooks for the new A levels?

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MEI Newslet ter

Teaching

advanced

mathemat ics

in Ind ia

Since 2003 approximately 1400 teachers have taken part in the Teaching Advanced Mathematics (TAM) course. One of these teachers, Anushka Rao, now teaches in rural India. Having completed the TAM course and developed her practice in the UK, she is now facing the task of translating her approaches into a new setting.

One of the challenges she faces is a lack of resources to help develop an engaging curriculum which focuses on developing mathematical thinking in students. Having taught using many of the MEI professional development and Integral resources while in the UK, she was interested in

Teaching the

new A levels

During 2016-17 MEI worked with a couple of school mathematics departments to help prepare for the new A levels. One of these departments, Tudor Grange Academy in Redditch, is led by Bruce Hampton who has been blogging about their journey to prepare for teaching the reformed qualifications. The story so far can be found at alevelmathsthoughts.wordpress.com

As the new academic year begins and the new mathematics A levels are taught for the first time the blog will continue the story. There will be updates about the experience of teaching the new qualifications, including reflections on some of the key changes such as introducing the large data set, embedding the use of technology across the course and the implications of the three Overarching Themes: mathematical argument, language & proof; mathematical problem solving; and mathematical modelling.

seeing how these approaches could transfer effectively to her new setting.

During this academic year Anushka will therefore be using a wide range of resources with her students and writing about the experience in her new blog. In particular she will focus on resources which are referred to in the various units within MEI’s new A level SoW, which supports the new A level mathematics qualifications.

Some b logs of interest

You can follow Anushka’s story in her blog taminindiablog. wordpress.com

Simon Clay

TAM Coordinator

Email Simon

...the LDS is my joint

-favourite thing about

the new A-Level

The discussion

amongst students

was vibrant.

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Septem ber 2017

Here are some things that former participants have said about TGM.

“Really opened my eyes to different views of the subject”

“I gained a deeper personal understanding of GCSE A/A* topics”

“I have attended many courses but this is the first time I have constantly thought, ‘Yes, I can use that’”

The fee is £500 per person which covers tuition and materials on two pairs of study days, a day’s participation at the MEI Conference, a series of live interactive web sessions and self-paced online learning modules.

We are pleased to announce that TGM is available for another academic year in 2017/18. Registration is open at venues in Manchester, Birmingham, London and North Wales. For further details and online registration go to mei.org.uk/tgm or contact course leader, Debbie Barker.

Teaching

GCSE Maths

(TGM)

TGM is MEI’s sustained professional development course for those new to teaching secondary mathematics. It is designed for teachers wishing to develop their own subject knowledge, classroom practice and confidence in the teaching of mathematics up to the level of higher tier GCSE. TGM is ideal support for colleagues who might be:

►in initial teacher training

►newly or recently qualified

►returning to the classroom

►experienced teachers of other subjects who are now teaching mathematics

The course covers both subject knowledge and teaching strategies, building upon the ideas of key stage 3 mathematics up to the higher tier content of the new GCSE.

Two of fers to support maths teaching at KS3 and GCSE

Think ing Mathemat ica l ly

The first online module of our Teaching GCSE Mathematics (TGM) course is now also being offered as a standalone professional development course.

Aimed at those new to teaching maths this year, it includes four live sessions that will run on Thursdays throughout October and access to supporting resources, classroom activities and forum discussion.

The four topics will be:

►Line segments

►Sequences

►Solving equations

►Data distributions

The fee is £50 per person and this will be deducted from the fee of anyone who subsequently chooses to register for the full TGM course.

Register online. For further details please contact the course leader, Debbie Barker.

Debbie Barker

KS3&4 Coordinator

Email Debbie

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MEI Newslet ter

The Problem Solving Matters course was developed by MEI in partnership with Oxford University and Imperial College and piloted in 2016. The programme of support was made possible by the generous support of Dr Tony Hill, Oxford University Alumnus.

In 2017 the Problem Solving Matters course partnership expanded to include Durham University and Warwick University. In June this year 340 students started the course at one of the four venues. The course consists of three face-to-face study days where students are placed into mentoring groups and assigned a mentor who is an undergraduate or postgraduate student from the host

The Problem Solving Matters course aims to develop the problem solving skills of students from state-funded schools in England.

It is based upon AS/A level Mathematics content, but it introduces problems that require a deeper understanding of the mathematics. The course is good preparation for those students wishing to sit either the Mathematics Admissions Test (MAT) for Oxford University and Imperial College, London or the Test of Mathematics for University Admissions (TMUA) for Durham University. Some offers from Warwick also include either MAT or TMUA as an alternative to STEP.

offers of places from Oxford University and Imperial College. In preparation for this year’s course, the materials and structure of the course have been reviewed and revised, based on the student and mentor feedback from the pilot, and we are confident of further success this year.

Phil Chaffé

FMSP Central

Coordinator

Email Phil

Problem Solving Mat ters 2017

university. Two study days take place before the summer break and one takes place in September. It is the use of an assigned mentor for each student throughout the course that makes the Problem Solving Matters course stand out from similar problem solving programmes of support. Students attending the course are expected to submit three summer assignments for marking and feedback from their mentor. The third study day is followed by four online lessons for those preparing for the MAT or TMUA examinations.

The course received very good feedback from its pilot last year. It led to several students receiving

Data Analysis Boot Camp - Warwick Univers i t y

The Social Science Data Analysis Boot Camp will be held at the University of Warwick on 4 November and will provide an excellent opportunity for students interested in mathematics and statistics to learn how their skills could be used in a growing area of the labour market. The event will include short talks on the application of statistical analysis to

The Warwick Q-Step Centre is running an event as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, aimed at GCSE and A Level students.

study crime, elections and inequality, followed by a hands on data analysis workshop. No previous experience with statistics or statistical computing is assumed.

We would appreciate it if you could share details of this event with your students and colleagues.

Places are limited, please sign up today to secure your place.

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Septem ber 2017

The principle of comparable outcomes is used to avoid disadvantaging students who are sitting a new qualification. Put simply, this means that priority is given to statistical information about the predicted grade distribution when setting grade boundaries (this is done by using the methods outlined in article 1 in the May 2017 newsletter, based on the KS2 results of the year 11 students sitting the qualification).

This is the second of a series of three articles about how exam grades are decided; this article outlines how grades are decided in the first year of a reformed qualification – especially relevant to maths at the moment. Students who are sitting a new qualification might be disadvantaged because there are fewer past papers to work through and their teachers may be less well-informed about the requirements of the new qualification.

Comparable outcomes for s tudents tak ing a reformed

qual i f icat ion

For the new GCSEs, the key grade boundaries are 9, 7, 4 and 1. Statistical evidence was used in a similar way to the way it is used for the current GCSEs, with the following matching between grades.

The distribution from the reference year for grade A on legacy GCSE Mathematics was used as the distribution for grade 7 on the reformed GCSE and so on.

7% +0.5*(the percentage of those gaining at least grade 7) gives the percentage of those gaining at least grade 7 who should get grade 9.

In future years, grade 9 will be set by the judgement of the awarding committee and informed by statistical predictions; the statistics regarding grade 9 in 2017 will be used to provide a reference.

For year 11 students in 2017, their KS2 results are not comparable to KS2 results in previous years because of changes to the KS2 English SAT in 2012, but exam boards have engaged in modelling to ensure comparability.

This year, the first year of the new GCSE Mathematics qualification, the percentage of students gaining grade 9 was set by the following formula.

In future years, the National Reference Test will provide an additional source of evidence to inform GCSE grading.

There is an Ofqual video about comparable outcomes and the national reference test.

Stella Dudzic

Programme Leader

(Curriculum and

Resources)

Email Stella

Legacy grade Equivalent new grade

A 7

C 4

G 1

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MEI Newslet ter

►Resources to cover new content in AS Further Mathematics for all specs. ►A series of over 25 short videos illustrating technology skills important for the analysis of large data sets ►A series of seven large data set lessons based on the data set for each specification featuring supporting PowerPoints and worksheets (see image right) ►Extension exercises for the second half of A level Mathematics You can book an online tour of Integral for your department at integralmaths.org.

Resources for AS Maths, most of A level Maths and most of AS Further Maths are now in place in the new Integral website for the 2017 qualifications for the AQA, Edexcel, OCR and MEI specifications. Resources will continue to be added throughout the Autumn term and beyond, providing full support with teaching the new qualifications.

Recent work on resources has been focused on the following areas; please visit integralmaths.org to see samples:

In tegra l – read y to go for the new AS/A levels !

MEI has been working closely with Hodder to ensure that Integral can continue to be used effectively alongside Hodder’s new books to support the 2017 qualifications. See page 5, also visit the Hodder website to see how links to Integral appear in Hodder’s eTextbooks.

Ritangle – nat ional maths compet it ion

for A level Mathemat ics Students

Questions, requiring no knowledge of mathematics beyond A level Mathematics, will be released daily for 20 consecutive weekdays. The final question unlocks an overall answer, based on the solutions to all the questions, then it’s a race to submit the first correct answer! A level Mathematics students can compete as individuals or in teams.

Visit integralmaths.org/ritangle for more information and to see last year’s questions.

Launching this term, Integral is running its Ritangle competition again! Ritangle is a maths challenge for students of A level Mathematics.

2016 Ritangle winners Scott Dixon&Tim Stallard of King Edward VI School, Stratford, pictured right with teacher Amanda Wood.

Last year’s Ritangle prize is shown below right—a hamper crammed with maths goodies (and some chocolate!)

A trophy and maths hamper will be awarded to this year’s winning team.

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Septem ber 2017

Fact r is – new maths app

Here are some comments on Factris from Twitter:

“Need a maths fix over the summer? Try Factris, It’s addictive”

“Factoring + Tetris = Factris. Another delightful premise and free game from @MEIMaths”

Factris is available for IoS and Android devices, see mei.org.uk/factris

This summer MEI released a free beta version of a maths game: Factris. In Factris the player resizes dropping rectangles according to their factors and packs them together, building numeracy skills and strategic thinking skills.

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MEI Newslet ter

The FMSP support ing the new mathemat ics A levels

enrolment for these will open soon. In addition, the FMSP has organised a programme of one-day PD courses in every region of England for teachers of GCSE Higher Tier Mathematics, A level Mathematics and those involved in supporting students preparing for university maths entrance tests. Details of all FMSP events are available on the FMSP website.

The FMSP aims to increase participation in A level Maths and Further Mathematics and in the summer term 2017 we provided enrichment activities promoting the study of mathematics to over 8000 students. In his review of post-16 mathematics, published in July this year, Prof. Sir Adrian Smith reiterated the need to increase participation in level 3 mathematics. In particular he expressed concern for the low numbers taking Further Mathematics “given the role of further mathematics as a ‘passport’ to mathematical study at research intensive universities”.

Excellent news on A level uptake

This summer’s A level examination results are a cause for celebration. Entries

The Further Maths Support Programme continues to provide support for schools and colleges for AS and A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics this year. Students in year 12 will be starting the new specifications. The FMSP has updated the resources and support it provides to students and teachers, ready for the linear courses. Schools and colleges that register with the FMSP will continue to have access to Integral online resources for teaching Further Mathematics and the mechanics and statistics content of AS and A level Mathematics. In addition, the FMSP has recorded a series of video lectures covering the content of Further Maths to enable more students to study the course successfully. These videos are freely available to all students in registered schools.

This autumn, over 400 teachers have signed up for or embarked on a course of sustained professional development focusing on subject knowledge and pedagogy in A level Maths or Further Maths. There will be a second cohort of these courses starting in January or February 2018 and

for Mathematics and Further Mathematics were among a handful of subjects for which entries in 2017 increased significantly from 2016. A level Mathematics entries were up 3.3% and Mathematics remains the most popular A level subject. Entries for A level Further Mathematics increased for the 14th consecutive year, trebling since 2003. This year entries in the UK increased by 6% from 15,257 in 2016 to 16,172. Despite large decreases in entries for AS levels in other A level subjects, entries for AS Mathematics were down by only 1.4% and entries for AS Further Mathematics were up by 4.6%. AS levels in Mathematics and Further Mathematics offer valuable qualifications for students not wishing to complete the full A level. AS Further Mathematics provides very useful

additional preparation in mathematics for those continuing to study STEM subjects at university, so the FMSP is keen to support schools and colleges to maintain provision of both AS and A level Further Mathematics.

Kevin Lord

Programme Leader

(FMSP)

Senior Team Mathematics Challenge (STMC)

The FMSP is again organising the STMC, in partnership with the UK Mathematics Trust, with sponsorship from Rolls-Royce. The competition for teams of 4 students aged 16-19 will take place in November and December. This year, there is capacity for 1350 teams across England. Details, practice resources and entry forms are available here.

Paul Chillingworth

FMSP Central

Coordinator

Contact:

MEI Monckton House Epsom Centre White Horse Business Park Trowbridge Wiltshire BA14 0XG

Phone: 01225 776776

Fax: 01225 775755

E-mail: office@mei.org.uk

© MEI 2017

Websites:

MEI: mei.org.uk

FMSP: furthermaths.org.uk

MEI conference: conference.mei.org.uk

Integral mathematics resources: integralmaths.org

Social Media:

Facebook: facebook.com/MEIMaths

Twitter: twitter.com/MEImaths

twitter.com/MEIConference

twitter.com/Integral_Maths

twitter.com/furthermaths

MEI pioneers the development of innovative teaching and learning resources, including extensive online materials to support all major examination syllabuses.

MEI offers teachers of all GCSE, A level and Core Maths specifications a range of continuing professional development (CPD) courses, provides specialist tuition for students and works with industry to

Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI) is a membership organisation and a charity. Since the 1960s, MEI has worked to support mathematics teaching and learning. Any income generated through MEI’s work is used to support mathematics education.

MEI emphasises understanding and enjoyment of mathematics and also highlights the importance of mathematics in industry and commerce.

enhance mathematical skills in the workplace.

MEI’s popular A level specification is administered by OCR, with MEI taking responsibility for the curriculum, and providing course textbooks published by Hodder Education.

MEI manages the government-funded Further Mathematics Support Programme (FMSP), providing advice and support for teachers of AS/A level Mathematics and

About MEI

Further Mathematics in schools and colleges throughout England.

MEI is a member of the consortium, with Tribal Education, which manages the government-funded National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) and coordinates the work of the Maths Hubs.

Company registration number: 3265490