Overview

Total course length: one term, weekly sessions

Course features:

• Eight online sessions, approximately weekly, each up to 90 minutes long
• Access to course-specific teaching and learning resources in our Integral online platform
• A year of access to resources and recordings of the live sessions.

Topics and pedagogy for AQA Level 2 FM is a live online professional development course in our Subject Knowledge Live suite, designed to support teachers with delivering and embedding the AQA Level 2 Further Mathematics course. The sessions will include a combination of subject knowledge and pedagogy and will require active participation.

The course develops strategies and ideas for taking a piece of mathematics and extending it, exploring the connections which deepen understanding and develop fluency, and which can be used immediately in the classroom. There will be opportunities to consider how these concepts and resources could be embedded in professional practice and contribute towards the ambition and intent of the department’s curriculum.

Aims

• To familiarise teachers with the implementation of and key topics in the AQA Level 2 Further Maths course
• To consider how these topics might be explored, examined and extended beyond GCSE
• To collaborate on a range of questions, from basic to challenging, to ensure teachers are comfortable to explore these topics with their students.

Who will benefit from attending?

• Teachers with an interest in enriching and extending the classroom experience for students of Higher GCSE Mathematics and raising aspirations for post-16 study
• Teachers in schools where there is an intention to implement this course soon or where it has recently started
• Teachers who have offered the previous specification for this course and want to update themselves on the changes in the new specification

Pearson EMC

• Teachers who are offering the Pearson Extended Maths Certificate will also find this course supportive. 

Content

• The ethos of the course and its pedagogical style
• A deep look at hidden quadratics
• Polynomials and the factor theorem
• Trigonometry
• The binomial expansion
• Three-variable simultaneous equations
• Functions
• Sequences and their limits
• Circles
• Calculus
• Matrices

Materials and equipment

You will need access to a good internet connection, using Chrome or Firefox as a browser. You must have access to audio, to speak as well as listen, to engage with the live sessions and you may also find a means of sharing handwritten maths, such as a mini-whiteboard and webcam, a visualiser or a graphics tablet, useful. Full details of how to set these up can be found on our online classroom support page. Access to GeoGebra and/or Desmos will be useful.

At the AMSP we are committed to improving the accessibility and inclusivity of our offer. For SKL courses, for example, we provide PDF versions of our slide decks for participants to read ahead of the sessions if they choose to (with no expectation of prior preparation). If there is a further arrangement we can put in place to support you accessing this SKL course, please let us know by email to [email protected].

Eligibility

All teachers are eligible for this course, however free places are available only to teachers in state-funded schools, colleges and academies in England. Applications for free places will be checked to verify eligibility.

Teachers must ensure that they are able to attend the live sessions before applying for a place as our courses are subject to very high demand: please do not apply for a place if you will not be able to attend at least 75% of sessions.

If you are not able to attend 75% of the sessions in this course, you might like to consider completing our register of interest form (this is NOT an application form) and letting us know when would be better for you.

Cost

This course is free of charge to teachers working in state-funded schools, colleges and academies in England, otherwise the fee is £215.

Study schedule

Date	Session content
Wed 21 Jan	Introduction and hidden quadratics
Wed 28 Jan	Polynomials and the factor theorem
Wed 04 Feb	Trigonometry
Wed 11 Feb	Calculus
Wed 25 Feb	Matrices
Wed 04 Mar	The binomial expansion
Wed 11 Mar	A suite of algebraic techniques
Wed 18 Mar	Circles

This programme may be subject to change.

FAQs

I am a trainee teacher, can I join this course? Will there be a fee?

Trainee teachers are eligibile to join all our Subject Knowledge Live courses, although this will be at the standard fee. If you have already secured a role in a state funded school/college in England, or are undertaking a placement in such a school, and the school is happy to be stated on your application, then you can join the course free of charge.

I can't make the time or the day that this course is being offered, is there an alternative? Can I access the course via recordings only?

Subject Knowledge Live courses run in seasons and this course will be available again next term. We will also add additional instances of a course if there in sufficient demand in the current season. Please complete the register of interest form giving details of your needs and this will be taken into account in our planning. We will then contact you as soon as a suitable course becomes available.

These courses are designed specifically for synchronous study and we feel strongly that live attendance, where you can interact with the tutor and other participants, is necessary to get the best experience of the course. We would recommend therefore that you seek alternative professional development which fits with your situation.

If, however, this is the only opportunity available, we will accept recordings-only participation. We would appreciate it if you would make it clear on your application that this is what you require as the viability of our courses depends on live participation numbers.

Please note that if you do not attend the live sessions, you will not qualify for a course certificate and any fees due will remain unchanged.

Will this course include ideas for teaching the content as well as subject knowledge?

This course will take a peer-to-peer approach: we will be delivering subject knowledge whilst modelling recommended pedagogies. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on the practices demonstrated as well as their own teaching approaches to the content. If you require even greater focus on pedagogy, we recommend our extended professional development programmes

Will this course cover all of the topics in the specification? Will it include other awarding organisations?

This course covers a selection of the key topics from from the AQA Level 2 Certificate in Further Maths, usually but not only where the content goes beyond what would normally be included in the Higher GCSE course. It should not be considered comprehensive. We will from time to time indicate where the topic we are studying is also relevant for the Pearson EMC course.