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Some interesting resources from @fortyninecubed

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Welcome to Corbettmaths! Home to 1000's of maths resources: Videos, Worksheets, 5-a-day, Revision Cards and much more.

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Questions that are designed to look the same BUT require very different skills. A complete contrast to have one skill tested in many contexts. Based on research, not fad.

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SSDD stands for Same Surface, Different Depth. They are a special set of problems that may look the same at first glance, but require different mathematical ideas to solve them.

SSDD Problems have become one of my key strategies to use with my students to help them become better problem solvers.

You can search for different topics using the tags on the right-hand side (or below if using a mobile device), and you can find out more about SSDD Problems on this page.

My books

I have written two books about my use of these types of activities.

My 2020 book, Reflect, Expect, Check, Explain: Sequences and behaviour to enable mathematical thinking in the classroom, goes into detail about making the most of these activities in the classroom. You can order the book from Amazon, John Catt, or wherever you get your books.

My 2023 book, Tips for Teachers: 400+ ideas to improve your teaching, details my most recent thoughts on using SSDD Problems effectively. You can order the book from Amazon, John Catt, or wherever you get your books.

My online courses

I have an online course store which offers low-cost, high-quality CPD on-demand. Each course contains short videos, resources, research, activities and questions to reflect upon. The courses most suited to the questions on the SSDD Problems website are:

Supporting this website

I do not make any money from this website, so if you did want to support its future development - and hopefully learn more about the pedagogy underpinning these ideas - then I would be so grateful if you would consider:

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this - now go and enjoy the site!
Craig

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Same Surface, Different Deep Structure maths problems from Craig Barton @mrbartonmaths

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Again, another good resource centre. Plenty to have a look at, especially for revision

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Practice and best guess predicted papers for GCSE Maths, expanding to the new GCSE soon.

It's important to note that any predicted paper from any website is logical and systematic guess work at best and may not be the topics which come up on the actual exam. However, teachers have used their judgement in creating these papers from previous 'typical' topics and also through the process of elimination from paper 1. This is not to say if a topic came up on paper 1 that it can't come up on paper 2 in a different form.

For example standard form was presented as a compare on paper 1 2018 AQA. This doesn't mean it won't appear on paper 2. You may be asked to carry out a calculation

2019

AQA - Practice Papers

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Wow, what an amazing weekend! The La Salle Education maths team excelled themselves again. Thank you to @LaSalleEd team and Mark (@EmathsUK) for another amazing conference #mathsconf13.

Rob Smith (@RJS2212) deserves a special thanks as well for his dedication to selling raffle tickets and also the amazing tuck shop!

The conference raised a £2000 for Macmillan Cancer today, thanks to the donations of all attendees and a significant donation to round the sum up by Mark.

400 maths teachers gathered on a Saturday morning ready for the maths conference to begin. As usual you could feel the excitement in the room. This time though there was a palpable buzz as people waited for Matt Parker (@Standupmaths) to take the stage.

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Starting teaching or moving schools can be both exciting and daunting to begin with. It's a world filled with lots of unknowns that can make us feel both apprehensive and nervous.

There are several key factors that can make this a stressful situation;

not knowing your way around

not knowing your colleagues

not being embedded yourself as a teacher

having a lack of personal space or classroom

having to learn the new systems of a school

All of these factors are common to any teacher who is new to school, even if they have been teaching over 20 years. Knowing these feelings aren't isolated to only yourself is important. The excitement and apprehension of a new role can be an interest mix.

Here are my top tips on how to manage the stress of the unknowns.

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The NQT year for any new teacher can be rather daunting. It's a weird scenario to be in. You are qualified in terms of passing your training but you still have to pass the year in order to be a fully qualified teacher. It is a sort of limbo. I remember getting to my RQT year and not feeling much different to my NQT year, apart from I now had a piece of paper saying I was a fully qualified teacher. 4 years later I'm slowly starting to not feel like a teacher fraud anymore. It's weird, you don't suddenly wake up one day and feel like a teacher. I'm learning everyday in the profession and I'm a great believer that is the way it should always be.

Your NQT year can be more intimidating than most for many reasons, such as:

Finally being let loose and trusted with your own classes on your own

Teaching lots more students as your timetable has significantly increased

You don't know the names of the memebers of your department let alone the students

This lists only a few things.

So here are my top 5 tips:

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This is the first in a series of blogs I'm going to be publishing this week to help support teachers who have new jobs. The first is one of the most important articles, as this is about how current teachers can support those teachers who are either training, starting their NQT year or moving schools.

The majority of schools this year across the country have new members of staff joining the ranks. Some will be experienced teachers and teaching assistants who are moving jobs and others will be newer to the profession such as trainee teachers and NQTs. As colleagues to these new members of staff we have a vital role to play. People are often very excited and dare I say vulnerable when they start a new post. It's a time in which we can have a big impact. It's important we help and support our new colleagues get off to a good start.

How might we do this? I think it's important to say some of these ideas below will be nothing new. However it doesn't hurt to have a reminder; You never know what little thing you might miss. Every small thing adds up tp make a difference to your new colleagues experience in the first few days. Try to remember how you felt on your first day and in your first week.

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Miss B's Resouces Free Maths and Numeracy resources Miss B's

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Sharing good practice and ideas blog. Free differentiated Maths worksheets, homework's, Marking, GCSE revision and numeracy across the curriculum resources

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Loads of interesting activities to engage students (Target / Bingo / Treasure Hunts, etc.)

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SKILLS CHECKS - free samples

Weekly skills checks and record sheets for Key Stage 1 and Year 4 to Year 13.
6 Different 'levels' for Key Stage 4

Great value for money with a school subscription costing only £60 +VAT for 12 months.
Single user subscriptions for individuals also available for only £35 + VAT for 12 months

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SKILLS CHECKS - free samples Great value for money with a school subscription costing only £60 +VAT for 12 months. Single user subscriptions for individuals also available for only £35 + VAT for 12 months

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The TuptonMaths twitter account. See emails for username and password.

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From breaking news and entertainment to sports and politics, get the full story with all the live commentary.

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Where all of the practise assessments / SAMs, etc. live. You'll need to signup (it's free

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This free website is intended for the use of teachers of mathematics in secondary schools, wherever you might be and regardless of what awarding body you use.

The Maths Emporium contains over 20,000 files to do with Edexcel Mathematics and all the qualifications that we offer, including past papers, mark schemes, examiner reports and grade boundaries.

To request an account, click on Login/Register. Ensure you supply a valid centre email address in your name for verification, your centre name and centre number. Requests from students and from private email addresses will be deleted.

If you had an old Emporium account, you will need to re-register your details to access this new website.

Once we have established you are a teacher at a registered centre, we will activate your account and an automatic confirmation email will be sent. This email will include your username, so please file it away somewhere easily found. Or jot it down.

If you do forget your username, you'll be able to log in using the email address with which you registered.

If you forget your password, you can use Forgot your password? to reset your password.

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This free website is intended for the use of teachers of mathematics in secondary schools, wherever you might be and regardless of what awarding body you use. The Maths Emporium contains over 20,000 files to do with Edexcel Mathematics and all the qualifications that we offer, including past papers, mark schemes, examiner reports and grade boundaries.

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Blog post on structured revision lessons

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Blog post on structured revision lessons

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By @mathsjem Jo Morgan

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Thankfully I finished teaching my Year 11s the GCSE specification at the end of last term, leaving me a good 20 lessons for revision. I teach a top set - their target grades range from 5 to 8 and I think their current grades probably range from 4 to 9.

Throughout the year I've been drawing up a list of topics that I need to reteach. The list is very long! It includes indices, constructions, bounds, congruence, linear graphs and algebraic fractions. This information mostly came from marking mocks, plus the weekly quizzes we've done over the last two years. I also used AQA's revision list to check that I hadn't missed anything on the specification.

Unlike previous years, I'm following a set format in my Year 11 revision lessons. Routine works well with my students.

On arrival to each lesson they find a Corbett Maths 5-a-day on their desk. This is printed on A5, double sided. On the front is a set of Higher questions, on the back is Higher Plus. This combination is exactly the right pitch for my students - even the strongest are finding the Higher Plus questions sufficiently challenging, so no one is getting bored. These 5-a-day exercises are perfect for getting students to revise a mixture of topics, including the topics that I can't devote an entire revision lesson to. When they get stuck they ask me for help or confer with a friend. It takes quite a while for my students to work through these questions - a good 15 to 20 minutes to complete both sides. Then I go through the answers, briefly summarising the key points for each of the topics covered.

This leaves me half the lesson to focus on a particular topic - for example one lesson last week focused on circle theorems, another on similarity. I speak for about 10 to 15 minutes, reminding my students of the key points and common misconceptions, and running through an exam question or two. Some years ago I realised the importance of this teacher-led instructional element of revision lessons. If they're struggling with a topic, they won't magically get better without some additional teaching.

I then give them 15 to 20 minutes worth of practice questions focused on that topic. For example in my revision lesson on compound measures they completed these density questions. The questions by topic from JustMaths are particularly useful.

I think this lesson format is working well. Now I've established a set structure, these lessons are pretty quick to plan. My students get through a lot of revision in each lesson, and I feel that we're revising all the high priority topics in sufficient detail. There are no gimmicks. Importantly, I'm addressing common misconceptions and reminding students of key facts and procedures.

I occasionally do a Churchill Paper lesson too, though the majority of practice papers are done at home and in Papers Society. Churchill papers are quite challenging. Next week I intend to start quizzing my class on facts and formulae. But most of my lessons will continue to follow the format described above.

Three weeks and counting until the first GCSE exam!

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Thankfully I finished teaching my Year 11s the GCSE specification at the end of last term, leaving me a good 20 lessons for revision. I teach a top set - their target grades range from 5 to 8 and I think their current grades probably range from 4 to 9.

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Higher - revision and practise skills from Pearson

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Top 10 | Target | Intervention | Pearson

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Guided support for the top 10 toughest skills in the 2017 GCSE (9-1) maths exam papers

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Foundation - revision and practise skills (pdf)

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An 80 page problem solving booklet designed for GCSE students, plus loads of other good stuff

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Ideal for when you want to keep pushing to ensure a topic has really been understood

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In 2016, I attended #MathsConf7 in Leeds. The outcome? A to-do list longer than my arm as I intended to create a textbook of exercises of increasingly difficult questions to improve upon the standard…

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Exam topics seen from every angle. Compilation by Dr Frost Maths

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DFM is a huge bank of free educational resources for teaching mathematics, with full sets of slides, worksheets, games and assessments that span Year 7 to Further Maths and enrichment resources with a Maths Challenge/Olympiad focus. We are working hard on a new platform for setting, building and monitoring homework.

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We have a subscription to this amazing website. Upload QLA documents and it produces workbooks tailored to individual student's needs!
Username: see email
Password: see email

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Quality materials from piximaths

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PixiMaths | Free Maths Teaching Resources | Homepage | Oakham

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Welcome to PixiMaths where you will find an assortment of resources as well as SOWs and assessments for the new 9-1 maths GCSE.

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From manipulatives to worksheets to GCSE resources (plus plenty for KS3 too)

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Lovely revision materials from AccessMaths

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Lovely revision materials from AccessMaths

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Good QR code stuff, revision mats, etc

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Revision Material that is being uploaded as and when I make them for my year 11's up to their GCSE this year.

There are 8 subtopics on each worksheet. The 'easier' questions start on the inner ring and build up as students reach the outside ring. Aimed at (9-1) Foundation but could be used as fluency revision for higher students also. These print really nicely onto A3! You can find more of these on www.tes.com by @Rimmer_Maths

Just another way of approaching revision of the larger problem solving questions. Students tackle the 5 key skills round the outside of the 'Big Question'. Once students are confident on each of the 5 areas they should be equipped with everything they need to tackle the center problem.

A few posters just aimed at making sure students are fluent in those 'opening page' questions. That confidence starts to build the second they start to confidently get some marks in the bag, and practice makes permanent!

Cut out and build the tetrahedrons and use them during revision sessions or just chuck them around your room and on your shelves for an extra bit of maths! Focused on helping to remember the formulas that have now been taken away for the new 9-1 GCSE.

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Revision Material that is being uploaded as and when I make them for my year 11's up to their GCSE this year. There are 8 subtopics on each worksheet. The 'easier' questions start on the inner ring and build up as students reach the outside ring.

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Loads and Loads of free GCSE resources by topic

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Highly rated by teachers and students, these free maths resources have carefully thought out questions and detailed solutions. They are designed to make it easy for students to take the first steps in each topic, then strengthen and extend their knowledge and skills. The resources include revision questions for KS2 SATs and GCSE.

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GCSE and A Level revision site. Questions by topic, plus mini guides by topic. Broken down by grades too.

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All content beyond this point is for the higher tier only.

Copyright © Maths Genie. Maths Genie Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 14341280. Registered Office: 143 Lynwood, Folkestone, Kent, CT19 5DF.

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All content beyond this point is for the higher tier only. Copyright © Maths Genie. Maths Genie Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 14341280. Registered Office: 143 Lynwood, Folkestone, Kent, CT19 5DF.