A Level Further Maths

[gillkniight]

How many hours a week does you child get for further maths A level? My daughter is in year 12 and studying maths and further maths A levels in parallel. Her school want to reduce teaching time for further maths in year 13. She wants to maintain current levels and so we are trying to compile some evidence to go back to the school with. Any info gratefully received. Many thanks

@gillkniight Ds had 5 hours for maths and 5 hours for FM timetabled each week however rather than running a parallel maths/FM course they did all of the maths content in year 12 using both those timetabled slots. Then year 13 is all FM which builds on top of the maths base. It makes much more sense for schools to do it this way. They sit both maths and FM exams in year 13 though so the FM knowledge should help with maths.

Ds says it depends on what her grades are now, lots of his class were D grade in FM but A in maths. He feels that time is needed in year 13 to keep going over the methods to increase the D grade up, it is about practise. Ds was an A in FM as well though as he worked at it. He says the teaching he had was stellar as they were given multiple examples meaning if they got stuck they had something to look back on to check their method, a walk-through.

What are they proposing she does in the slots they are taking away? The whole point of a sixth form is having a teacher to teach you.

Ds recommends alevelmathsrevision.com/maths-categorised-exam-questions/ for help and revision.

@OnTheBenchOfDoom Thanks so much for your reply. Parallel teaching seems to be the norm when there is a small cohort and it seems to be working ok so far; she's currently A* in both maths and FM.

The general consensus seems to be that FM should be accorded the same status as every other A level and should get equal teaching time and I will go back to the school with that argument. They are only proposing to remove one slot and their argument is that it was an extra slot they put on this year and that previous years have done fine without it but if they remove it FM will be down to 2/3 of the time allocated to maths.

@gillkniight If they do drop a slot which I am assuming is just 1 hour of teaching I would get her to dedicate that time to just reaffirming her knowledge of maths/fm so she isn't losing teaching time. Unless of course she needs to pull up another subject grade in which case use the time for that.

Ds says year 13 FM integration is the most complex stuff and you really want that time spent being guided through.

Do you think it is a staff supply issue? Why is that teacher suddenly unavailable to teach that slot? I think that is the question I would be asking. I would also ask what happens if grades start slipping or if there is a lack of understanding, would they reintroduce that slot again.

I think it varies.

DS did Further Maths as a 4th A-level in parallel with maths and they did not get the same number of hours as for the other subjects.

DD did Maths A-Level in Y12 and Further in Y13. I think that 3 of her free periods were used for extra Maths.

If my DC were doing eg Physics, Maths and Further Maths then I'd expect equal teaching time for each.

@whiteroseredrose thanks for your reply. DD is in the same position as your son; doing FM as a 4th in parallel. Thankfully the school has been persuaded to keep teaching hours the same in yr13. It's only an hour over two weeks but every little helps after the year they have all had!

It is the combined Maths and Further Maths time that matters.

It is not really 2 A levels worth (at least for those with any ability).

That is why places like Oxbridge look really closely at applicants with 3 A levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and , unless there is a compelling reason otherwise, would expect a 4th A level.

Given that a lot of Maths is practice anyway, losing a small amount of teaching in Year 13 should not be an issue, especially if there are clinics, stretch-and-challenge classes etc.

I could not get worked up about it.

Depending on the students and the set-up, sometimes it's possible to manage with less timetabled teaching time - if you're in a small group of 2/3 then there's much less time wasted going over bits other members of the class are stuck on but you've mastered. It's also much easier to set independent work and then use the lesson time just for the bits that they haven't understood. I taught a group of 6 on 3/5 the normal time allocation in year 12 (but full whack in year 13), and it worked absolutely fine.

Not sure how many hours DC had but there were only 2 of them with FM. They completed the "normal" maths course much quicker compared to the students without FM. So I don't think there was a set number of hours for maths and for FM.

4hrs maths, 4hrs FM.
But FM didn't start until after Christmas in yr 12.

5 hours a week for maths (and every A level subject) 5 hours for FM - treated the same.