Department Leader: Charlotte Knight
In the sixth form students can follow courses in A level Maths, A level Further Maths or AS Mathematical Studies. Students who take Further Maths must also take Maths.
We follow the Edexcel A level Maths and Further Maths syllabi and the AQA Mathematical Studies syllabus.
A Level Maths
Students will aim to sit three two hour exams at the end of year 13.
Two of these will concentrate on the pure mathematics topics such as:
Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, Vectors, etc.
The other exam will be 50% Statistics and 50% Mechanics.
In the statistics module students will be investigating topics such as:
Probability, Statistical Distributions and Hypothesis Tests, Data Presentation and Interpretation, etc.
In mechanics they will study:
Kinematics, Forces, Moments, Newton’s Laws, etc.
(These topics should also help support any students wishing to study physics.)
In A level Further Maths students currently study the Core Pure element and then Further Pure and Decision Maths.
A Level Further Maths
Topics include:
Complex numbers, matrices, proof, differential equations, algorithms, critical path analysis and linear programming
All courses are 100% exam based.
AS Mathematical Studies
This AS qualification is designed to support and develop mathematical understanding needed for other A Level qualifications such as Biology, Chemistry, Physic, Geography, Psychology, etc. It is not for student who are studying A Level Maths, instead it is an additional AS Level student can study in Year 12.
Content for the course is
- Analysis of data
- Maths for personal finance
- Estimation
- Critical analysis of given data and models
- The normal distribution
- Probabilities and estimation
- Correlation and risk analysis
It will be examined through two papers, each 1 hour 30 mins in length where a scientific or graphical calculator is allowed.