Welcome to the Maths department

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.

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.

Topics include:

Complex numbers, matrices, proof, differential equations, algorithms, critical path analysis and linear programming

All courses are 100% exam based.

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.

Year 12s are advised that the Casio FX 991 EX “Classwiz” calculator is recommended by both the school and the exam board. This will be required in order to answer a number of questions, particularly in the statistics modules.

Textbooks

We have a number of textbooks available on the school intranet, and textbooks specifically for the new specification can be obtained from the Edexcel website.

Specifically named

• Maths Year 12: Year 1/AS Pure Mathematics ISBN-10: 129218339X
• Year 1/AS Statistic and Mechanics ISBN-10: 1292232536
• Maths Year 13: Year 2 Pure Mathematics ISBN-10: 1292183403
• Year 2 Statistics and Mechanics ISBN-10: 1446944077
  • (Four text books for Mathematics)
• Pure mathematics year1/AS and year 2
• Statistics and Mechanics year1/AS and year 2
  • (Four text books for Further Mathematics.)
• Core Pure mathematics book1/AS and book 2
• Further pure mechanics 1 FP1
• Decision Mathematics 1 D1

Websites:

http://m4ths.com/teach-yourself-a-level-maths.html

https://www.desmos.com/calculator

https://edu.casio.com/products/cwiz/fx991ex