Save me from myself …

So we have something that we are working on (you may have noticed the QLA tab at the top of the page) but we can’t decide on a name … so this is your opportunity to help us! If we choose your name we’ll give your school a free subscription to JustMaths online!! In order … Read more

Crossover 2 – OCR

This is the second post looking at the percentage of questions that were on both tiers in the first live sitting of the exam – part 1 included the stats from Pearson/Edexcels papers and this one is for OCR. As previously, I should remind you that “at least 20%” on both tiers must be from … Read more

‘Tis done

So paper 3 is done and dusted. ‘Tis done. ‘Tis finished. At just after 10:30 am this morning I could almost feel maths teachers everywhere breathing a massive sigh of relief. (I promise I will write up my experience of sitting the exam as an external candidate but time … you know! .. time … … Read more

Countdown “T minus 25”

I’ve joked from the very introduction of the new GCSE that I wanted to sit the exam with the year 11 group that would be sitting it for the very first time … well .. I’ve only gone and flipping entered! The idea is not to prove that I can get a 9 (but shouldn’t … Read more

Dual entry ?

Back in December 2015 the DFE published a document ->  GCSE_Early_Entry_Guidance that clarified some rules about “early entry” – you may remember when new early entry rules for key stage 4 qualifications were announced on September 29 2013 (I remember it well!) that only a pupil’s first entry to a key stage 4 qualification would counts towards their school’s … Read more

Mel’s digging her hat out again!

COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED … THANKS TO EVERYONE THAT ENTERED I’ve only gone and convinced Mel it’s about time to dig out her hat again and offer some free tickets to the JustMaths Conference in June. Back in the Summer term when we were about to launch the ‘Super 60’ we wanted to celebrate the … Read more

Dates for your diary

Just a quickie to let you know about the forthcoming dates for the collaborative network meetings that Pearson Edexcel run. If you haven’t been to one you need to get yourself involved – the emphasis in these meetings is meant to be on teaching and learning, rather than exam focus but inevitably given that this … Read more

H v F ..

No-one knows what the boundaries for any grade are going to be next Summer; There is lots of second guessing going on and I’ve seen some things that are glaringly wrong and I’ve seen some things that are founded on good common sense but what is obvious is that the make up of the papers … Read more

Get involved!

This idea came out of our last Edexcel network meeting at Alcester whereby we discussed the impossible task of allocating grades given that none of the exam boards are able to give the slightest guidance. After a discussion we agreed that it would be useful to share anonymous student marks for the secure mocks to … Read more

H v F … What if we make the wrong decision?

A couple of weeks ago, whilst wrapped up with my quilt, suffering with a bout of manflu I used the opportunity to have another look at the SAMs, specimens and practice papers alongside marking and collating the results from my year 10 class following their recent assessments. Additionally, I spent this down-time looking at the similar … Read more

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