gcse further maths discontinued??

[Masooma78]

Is that true that gsce further maths is discontinued by all exam boards? Is further maths only an option for A levels now? Many thanks!

And some schools would teach 1 year programmes early such as RS or General Studies which could be a 1/2 gcse and see to bump up the a*-c stats.

Many thanks for your messages!
It means that new reformed Maths GCSE is the only way to pass Mathemetics from 2017 but if child has given further maths test too then would further maths grade be counted as a separate grade in 2017 exams??

There is a difference between what exams count for the DfE school league tables, and what qualifications count for a pupil. A pupil could have say 10 GCSE and iGCSE grades, with only 7 of them counting for league table purposes, but all 10 appearing on their CV.

2 years ago, the CIE English iGCSE didn't count towards the league tables so any school taking that showed as 0 in the DfE league tables (including most independent schools). The Sunday Times, Telegraph etc produce league tables using all of the qualifications.

Many thanks for this information Ladymuck! Thanks a lot for explaining this complex issue. It is a great help indeed 👍👍😊 bless you!

As far as I know, the Further Maths iGCSE (AQA) is still being continued. I'm currently in Year 11, and I'm going to be the only one my year sitting it at my school. (because I got a "9" in my mocks, according to Pixlr, despite it being a statistical thing). Because the new GCSEs are harder, further maths should theoretically actually be easier, since there is less to learn, because of GCSE Maths (I haven't start being taught it yet, I'm starting next week).

They're still doing further maths at my son's school. He's in the top maths set in year 10 and the school polcy is that all in the top set are sat for further maths. They're finishing the GCSE work this Summer and then starting further maths in September (start of year 10). They're doing both the normal gcse and the further maths gcse at the end of year 11, so not doing the gcse a year early.

I think they're still doing additional maths in my son's school too. The more able mathematicians can also do GCSE statistics and some sort of qualification in algebra.

How about an Edexcel award in mathematics? My year 10 DS did one of the level 3 ones this year. They're on the same level as A Level and about half the size of a GCSE, I believe. The school offered it but we had to pay for entry, as it was just DS and another pupil doing it.

Info here

GCSE Further Maths is still offered at our DDs grammar school. If you're in the maths top set, it is compulsory to take both GCSE Maths and GCSE Further Maths.

DD2 is in Yr 8 and in top set. She would prefer to take GCSE Maths at the end of Yr 10, and get it out of the way and then take Further Maths at the end of Yr 11. But sadly the school no longer offer this option.

It's hardly the school's fault- DfE say anything taken early won't count in performance measures!

Interesting, I didn't know that Phil

I don't think that's right, Phil. Kids can still sit exams early, but to count in the league tables they have to be new 9-1 GCSEs. A current Y11 couldn't sit maths in Y10 and have it count because that was old spec, but next year's Y11 could have sat GCSE maths in Y10 because they would have sat the 9-1 spec so it would count.

Does anyone know the difference between AQA Further Maths and OCR Additional Maths?

Our school will not offers Additional Maths for yr 11 pupils alongside GCSE Maths.

Ah, noble. My info was based on Y11 this year

Sorry I meant to say that our school now only offers Additional Maths (ocr) alongside Gcse Maths.

I'd be interested to know the difference, if any, between Additional Maths and Further Maths, both taken as options in yr 11.

Additional maths is more difficult than Further Maths. Additional Maths is a level 3 qualification and has UCAS points, Further Maths is a level 2 (GCSE level) qualification. Both of them are similar in that they are intended to bridge the gap between GCSE and A-level.

Thanks noble

The issue about sitting early is that only the FIRST result will count (I think) which is why a lot of schools dropped early entry.

Yes, the level 2 certificate is still running and is a great course. It is not, however, counted towards the progress 8 which is another reason why schools aren't offering it.

Add Maths is more difficult and can be off-putting as students who are certainly capable of doing A Level can get poor grades or even fail.

Further maths counts as an Ebacc subject in Progress 8, but can't be used in the maths bucket.

We think that Russle Group Universities take further maths seriously while considering the applications.

Russell Group courses don't take further maths GCSE seriously, not least because many students don't have the opportunity to take it and because it is not a good indicator of ability to study mathematics and mathematics related subjects at university. If your husband is a professor, I'm surprised he doesn't know this.

By the way, for mathematics at university, all but the very top half dozen courses make an offer if the student has the correct predicted grades. The top maths courses use MAT, STEP and the new (run by the Cambridge Assessment company) Test of Mathematics for University Admissions to probe ability to study university level mathematics. Note that the latter is run by a company in Cambridge, not by the University of Cambridge. Cambridge itself will still rely on STEP for the foreseeable future.