Mathematics GCSE at Ashbourne College

The GCSE course is designed for the Edexcel specification but contains topics common to the core specification of other major boards.

The programme consists of an examination of the relevant areas of the specification, a summary of the key facts and principles relevant to the area under study, past paper questions and reference, where instructive, to the Chief Examiner’s Reports. Students will receive tuition in all types of examination question, whether short answer questions, source based stimulus response questions or essays and techniques in preparing for and answering compulsory questions. Students can expect each week a minimum of 6 hours of classroom tuition plus one or two substantial pieces of homework based on previous past papers.

Ashbourne’s Maths department is headed by Edward Morris who studied at Bristol and Open University.

The aims of this specification are that students:

Using and applying mathematics
• use and apply mathematics in practical tasks, in real-life problems and within mathematics itself
• work on problems that pose a challenge
• encounter and consider different lines of mathematical argument.

Number
• use calculators and computer software, eg spreadsheets
• develop and use flexibly a range of methods of computation, and apply these to a variety of problems.

Algebra
• explore a variety of situations that lead to the expression of relationships
• consider how relationships between number operations underpin the techniques for manipulating algebraic expressions
• consider how algebra can be used to model real-life situations and solve problems.

Shape, space and measures
• use a variety of different representations
• explore shape and space through drawing and practical work using a wide range of materials
• use computers to generate and transform graphic images and to solve problems.

Handling data
• formulate questions that can be considered using statistical methods
• undertake purposeful enquiries based on data analysis
• use computers as a source of large samples, a tool for exploring graphical representations and as a means to simulate events
• engage in practical and experimental work in order to appreciate some of the principles which govern random events
• look critically at some of the ways in which representations of data can be misleading and conclusions uncertain.