New and existing subscribers: claim your FREE Foundation sets package – 1 Maths Student Book and 2 Practice Books

We take differentiation seriously in our AQA GCSE Maths resources.  To prove it, we’re offering new and existing subscribers a FREE Foundation sets package containing 3 books:

• Foundation sets Student Book covering grades G-C
• Foundation sets Practice Book covering grades G-C, designed to work in combination with the Student Book
• Our unique G-F Practice Book, also designed to work with the Student Book, and presented as a write-in workbook to allow students to interact directly with the Maths.  Click here for a sample.

This just goes to show, as we’ve observed before, that the best things in life are… THREE!

New subscribers

To claim your 3 free books, enter your school email address in the box top right of your screen, and press Subscribe. We’ll post the books out to your school.  This offer is only open to UK-based Secondary Maths teachers.  As a subscriber to this blog, you’ll receive all new posts by email (1-2 per week) and no spam.  We will not pass your details to any 3rd parties.  

Existing subscribers

If you wish to claim your free Foundation sets package, just “leave a comment” on this post, and we’ll send them through to you.  We will not publish your comment (unless you want us to!)

The  S M A L L  print: This offer is only open to UK-based Secondary Maths teachers, and is limited to one package (i.e. 3 books) per centre.

After the AQA GCSE Maths Unit 1 exam, download FREE algebra tests for Unit 2

You’ve probably seen the recent Unit 1 exam paper for the new AQA GCSE Maths, with 50% of the marks coming from AO2 and AO3 questions.

Watch a short video about this big change from Series Editor Glyn Payne:

Glyn Payne explains the problem-solving involved in the new AQA GCSE Maths spec. Click to play.

Our new resources Longman AQA GCSE Mathematics  provides a stack of practice for AO2 and AO3, as well as helping students secure their basic maths for AO1.

In particular, there are Practice Papers (for both modular and linear) in the  Practice Books that cover the full ability range: Foundation Sets, Middle Sets, Higher Sets plus the special ‘G to F’ and ‘A to A*’  Books. In addition, the Assessment Pack includes Chapter Tests and more Practice Papers.

Moving on to Unit 2 Number and Algebra, download three Free Chapter Tests for ‘Basic Algebra’:

Higher sets: (grades D to A*)

Middle sets: (grades E to B)

Foundation sets: (grades G to C)

And here are the Answers to all three tests – think we’ve got the right ones this time!

Welcome Back! Time to get to grips with the new GCSE?

First of all, a warm welcome back to all of our subscribers! 

The new school year is underway (almost), and with it come new qualifications and new issues.  Functional Maths is going live, and even more importantly, the new GCSE specifications are now live.

The new Maths GCSE is built on problem-solving: 50% of marks will be awarded for so-called AO2 and AO3 questions.  If you know all about these already, great.  But if you don’t, be on your guard - these questions are different and might catch your students out.  Watch this 3 minute video from Examiner and Author, Glyn Payne:

AO-who? Watch a 3-minute explanation of AO2 and AO3 - it might make all the difference...

End-of-term freebie: Subscribe to this blog by 16th July and receive a FREE GCSE Maths Higher sets Student Book

As the end-of-term approaches we’re in celebratory mood.  The blog had its most popular month ever in June, some days receiving over 400 hits, and we’ve had dozens of new subscribers join our community. 

As a final offer before the school holidays, we’ll send all Maths teachers who subscribe to this blog by 16th July a FREE copy of Longman’s AQA GCSE Mathematics Higher sets Student Book.

Just enter your school email address in the box on the right hand side of this page, click the button, and we’ll send it out to your school address:

Longman's AQA GCSE Higher sets Student Book: ideal for modular or linear courses

Why should I subscribe to this blog?

Subscribers to this blog are part of our community of maths teachers and we value them.  As a subscriber, you will receive free resources not available to all browsers of this blog, and you will receive each of our posts by email - about 2-4 per week. 

We do not spam our subscribers, and we never share details with any third parties.  Subscription to this blog is entirely free. 

Where do I find a sample?

Click here to see page samples from all our Student Books - as well as all the other products in our AQA GCSE 2010 Maths series.

Note to our existing subscribers…

If you’re already one of our subscribers and want to receive the Higher sets Student Book, just let us know! Click on “Leave a comment”, and send a request that way.  The comment will not be published (unless you want us to) – it will just be read by the team here. 

We recently did a similar offer for the Practice Books, which had a tremendous take-up.  We’re proud of the resources we’ve produced and delighted with the number of schools that are adopting them!

Maths doesn’t have to be linear (small “l”)…

There’s no single formula (ah-hm) governing how we should teach maths, and there are plenty of strong opinions.

Here’s one very eloquently expressed view that we found on the Prezi site (Prezi is a website that allows you to put together funky-looking presentations, click on the graphic below to see more):

Is Maths circular then? Click to find out.

Our thanks to Alison Bank who created the presentation and to Lewis Birchon for bringing it to our attention (one of many helpful tips).

AQA GCSE Practice Books: Digital Editions published

We’re pleased to report that we’ve just published the Digital Editions for all five of our Practice Books: G-F, Foundation sets, Middle sets, Higher sets, and A-A*.

Our strategy has been to publish everything in this series in print format and in digital format.  The Digital Editions are available as CD’s, here are a few useful details:

• Built on our popular ActiveTeach platform
• Will integrate on your computer with any other digital resources from the series, providing a single point of access
• Suitable for modular or linear courses
• Contain a complete set of Practice exam papers (linear and modular)
• Contain a complete set of answers
• Contain an additional set of pdf’s for printing out any chapter

Click on any of the covers above to order a copy for purchase or on approval. 

Click here to learn more about Longman’s new resources for the new 2010 spec, or to order a FREE Evaluation Pack.

Longman AQA resources: Free Class Tracker for Maths GCSE

Sometimes it can be hard to get excited by a spreadsheet…  But we may have managed it.  We’ve just finalised the Class Progress Charts for our AQA GCSE Assessment Pack: one for Foundation sets, one for Middle, and one for Higher.  We know most people would run a mile if we said the spreadsheets had great functionality…  But they do! 

Extract of the "Class Progress Chart" in the Longman AQA GCSE Assessment Pack

The Class Progress Charts (or trackers) allow teachers to record pupil progress end-to-end through a GCSE course.  For example: the Assessment Pack contains Course entry tests for each Unit - input the results into the tracker, and it will suggest a target GCSE grade.  Handy for setting students. 

Another example: the Assessment Pack contains a diagnostic test for every Student Book chapter - input these results into the tracker, and it will tell you which students are on course to meet their target GCSE grade and which are falling behind.  Particularly handy for middle sets when deciding which tier to enter students. 

Click here to download the Charts (Foundation, Middle & Higher).  This link will take you through to our website: scroll down until you see the title Assessment Pack, and the links are just underneath. (We would post the files here, but this blog cannot host Excel…)

Click here to find out more about the AQA GCSE Assessment Pack, or click here to order one.

AQA GCSE Maths Schemes of Work – Free!

When you’ve got a moment to start planning your two-year course for the new AQA GCSE specifications (modular and linear), we have just the thing to help you!

Now free to download from our website are:

• 2-year  modular SoW starting with Unit 1
• 2-year  modular SoW starting with Unit 2
• 2-year linear SoW

for each of Longman’s AQA GCSE Mathematics 2010  resources: for Higher sets, Middle sets and Foundation sets. By ‘Middle sets’ we mean around grades E to B, aiming for a secure grade C at the end of the course.

Can’t think why you’d ever start with Unit 2?  See our previous post on the subject…

A-A* Practice Book: free sample chapters

  

Some rivers are easier to cross than others... Sample question on the Millau Suspension Bridge from A-A* book. Click to enlarge.

We published our A-A* Practice Book last week. It’s the only book in the market we can find, which targets top grade candidates and future A-Level stars.  And it’s our answer to anyone who says Maths GCSE is being dumbed down.  The book is full of engaging, colourful questions - all of them clearly graded and labelled like the AO2 sample above on the Millau Suspension bridge (Chapter 4 on Accuracy in calculations).  

And here’s a Challenge Yourself question from the Proportionality chapter:

Challenge Yourself... Or better still, challenge your students. Sample question on proportionality. Click to enlarge.

Challenge Yourself questions in every section offer some fun and danger to the brightest students – the questions go beyond GCSE but the underlying maths doesn’t.  We blogged some other samples a few months back – Mean, Meaner, Meanest – as well as answers. 

Click here to download free sample Chapter 3, Proportionality, or Chapter 4, Accuracy in calculations. 

The A-A* Practice Book can be ordered here.

AQA GCSE Maths Linear Specification Summary available

AQA have posted their Linear Summary Guide as a reminder about this important new specification for 2010.

AQA Linear Summary Guide

We know of some schools who are planning to continue a mix-and-match between Modular and Linear to suit the particular needs of their students.

And for each of Longman’s resources – Higher sets, Middle sets and Foundation sets – we supply Linear Schemes of Work as well as Modular.

Here’s the Linear Overview of the Scheme of Work for Middle sets taking Foundation Papers. And here’s the full Linear Scheme of Work for Middle sets taking Foundation or Higher.

In the Linear SoW we suggest a teaching order. If this isn’t your preferred order, we supply the files as editable Word documents in a CD-ROM in the back of the relevant Teacher Guide.