Workshop 1 - Tuesday 25th April 2023 - 1330-1530 Online

Workshop 2 - School/College Meetings - May 2023 TBC

Workshop 3 - Tuesday 20th June 0930-1530 - Face to Face Venue TBC

Workshop 4 - Tuesday 27th June 1330-1530 Online

This Work Group will explore effective ways of teaching key content to GCSE resit students. Participants will, through collaboration and experimentation, deepen their knowledge and understanding of the curriculum demands of GCSE Mathematics and their awareness of pedagogical approaches that best support students retaking GCSE. The Work Group will also consider the content and structure of effective schemes of learning for post-16 resit GCSE.

Participants’ departments will, through shared good practice, become more effective at teaching GCSE resit, for example by wider and more confident use of teaching approaches such as bar modelling, multiplicative reasoning, realistic contextualisation or teaching for mastery approaches. The development of responsive teaching techniques to diagnose and address key gaps in knowledge will be a pervasive element of all our work.

This Work Group will be run in collaboration with Cheshire and Wirral Maths Hub.

Who will be leading the group?

Sally Bamber

Dr Sally Bamber is the lead for the Secondary Mathematics PGCE at the University of Chester. She moved into teacher education in 2007 following 15 years mathematics teaching experience in four diverse schools. Sally is part of a pilot project accrediting the NCETM PD Lead to post-graduate credits. She is an active member of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics and the Association of Mathematics Education Teachers. Half of Sally’s University role is the design and implementation of classroom based research projects involving collaborative lesson design intended to raise attainment in GCSE mathematics for middle to lower attainers. Sally is a member of the SHaW Maths Hub Strategic Board and chair of the Cheshire and Wirral Maths Hub Strategic Board.

Who is it for?

The target group of participants in this Work Group is teachers of post-16 GCSE Maths resit and/or any head of department where post-16 GCSE Maths resit is taught. Participants may be based in FE colleges, sixth form colleges, schools with post-16 provision or other post-16 settings. Participants will be representing their institution and working with colleagues in between Work Group sessions, so ideally will have some responsibility to develop teaching and lead change.

What are the intended outcomes?

Student outcomes

Students will:

• demonstrate increased engagement in maths lessons
• demonstrate increased conceptual understanding of maths
• report increased confidence in using maths
• be better placed to make progress and achieve at least a grade 4 in GCSE Maths.

Whole school/departmental policies and approaches

Participants will:

• share practice and resources which are effective with this group of students, and/or lead professional development on post-16 GCSE resit pedagogy with their departments
• facilitate departmental discussions on effective schemes of learning for post-16 GCSE resit
• along with their institution, through engagement with the Work Group, work towards increased localised support and collaboration between 11-16 schools, FE colleges, sixth form colleges and 11-18 schools.

Practice development

Participants will:

• share their approaches to the planning and delivery of key concepts with the Work Group and, where appropriate, with colleagues in their department
• develop teaching and learning approaches, aligned with teaching for mastery, to promote engagement of students
• effectively teach key concepts and processes relevant to teaching the GCSE as a resit in post-16 over eight months.

Professional learning

Participants will:

• improve their awareness of key concepts and themes relevant to the context of the GCSE resit
• begin to develop an understanding of the key elements of a teaching for mastery approach to maths to help students make connections and deepen understanding
• develop an awareness of the importance of questioning and then adapting teaching to take account of students’ responses
• increase their understanding of ways of working within this sector.

What is the cost?

Free