Mathematics : Foundation GCSE

We use the Edexcel syllabus and all students who attained a grade 3 at school will study the Foundation level specification, which gives students access to grade 5 (a "good pass").
Since this is a revision course, we cover the content quickly, finishing the full content in one year.
For students who demonstrate that they are almost ready to sit the exam when they arrive in September, there is the opportunity to enter for the November exam.

It will all be familiar from school :-)

Topics will include:

Number
Algebra
Geometry
Statistics & Probability

The grades available at foundation level are 1 to 5.

Grade 4 is considered a 'pass', and what is required by many employers and university courses.  We'll do what we can to help you get a grade 4!

If you achieved a grade 4 in Foundation at school and are aiming for a grade 5, you should enrol on this (Foundation) course since that will maximise your chance of achieving a grade 5.  However, if you already have a grade 5, then you should enrol on the Higher GCSE Maths course if you are aiming to improve your grade to a 6 or higher.  If you attained a grade 4 in Higher at school, we will discuss your particular circumstances with you to help you identify whether Foundation or Higher would be most appropriate for you.

Students who study the Higher course typically do so in order to either support another course (such as T-Level Engineering) or to improve their grade to a 6 in order to widen the range of universities they can apply to for undergraduate degree courses such as Psychology which often require a grade 6 in GCSE Maths.

If you are in any doubts whatsoever, we will discuss your particular circumstances with you at enrolment.

We want to be sure that students who enter in November have a good chance of passing.  If there is a significant amount of learning to be done to be within reach of a grade 4, the best approach is to study GCSE Maths for the whole year in our mainstream classes where we teach and practice lots of topics we know that students typically struggle with.  This makes all the difference in helping you prepare for the summer exams and gives you the best chance of attaining a grade 4 within one academic year.

If we have evidence that there are very few gaps in your knowledge, then we will support you to pass in November.  Hence, if you were within a few marks of the grade 4 boundary in the June sitting of the exam, then we will give you the opportunity to sit the exam in November, so long as one of the November re-sit classes fits with the rest of your timetable.

We also set Flying Start Summer Homework and an Initial Assessment Test very early in the academic year.  If these two tasks go very well, then this will also provide us with the evidence that you have a good chance of passing in November.  In order to improve your chances of performing well in the Initial Assessment Test, you should revise by doing some past exam papers (which can be found on MathsGenie.co.uk).

According to the UK government funding rules that govern how we run the College, students in post-16 education who are under 19 on 1st September of the academic year in question must study GCSE Maths (and/or English) until they have attained a grade 4.  In practice, this means that if a student attends Cirencester College for 3 years (without any break between secondary school and College), they will be expected to study Maths alongside their main studies until they attain a grade 4 or above.

An absolutely essential piece of kit is a scientific calculator (at least similar to Casio FX-83GT CW).

In terms of a computing device such as Smart Phone, Tablet, Laptop, etc, we can split this answer into necessary/optional as follows:

Necessary - you will need a device that can do the following:

- Access emails

- Use our virtual learning environments, Moodle and Canvas

- Access particular websites such as www.MathsGenie.co.uk

- Access files such as pdfs and word files, to see past papers, model solutions, etc.

Optional - students who can do these things on a device may find things easier:

- Have a larger screen to view more of a document at once / view it at a bigger scale

- Write onto their screen, so you can annotate pdfs and make digital notes rather than always using paper-based materials, for example.

- Keep your notes organised digitally so you have easy access to them (especially if they sync with a Smart Phone)

For notes and most classroom-based work, a normal laptop (without a writeable screen) will not be very helpful except as a larger screen to see files. Maths requires lots of writing equations and drawing diagrams, for which hand-writing is important.  Even students who are allowed to type in exams almost always opt not to do this for Maths exams.

In addition, research about memory shows that people remember things better if they handwrite the notes rather than typing.

If you choose to get a device for your College studies, we would recommend that you get one with a touchscreen. This could be a tablet or a laptop with touchscreen.