By Ian Davies
A few years ago we wrote this blog on how to smooth the transition from Year 6 to 7 maths. It’s never easy for students to move from Year 6 to Year 7. We explored how the Collins White Rose Maths series for Key Stage 3 could be used to help deal with the move from Year 6 to Year 7. Transition from Key Stage 3 to Key Stage 4 can be equally challenging as students are bombarded with GCSE choices, new subjects and/or new grouping arrangements. We are delighted to launch the Collins White Rose Maths series for GCSE to help students tackle this change in the prized core subject of mathematics. This flexible resource has been carefully designed to match the needs of the major examination boards’ syllabi and can be used whether or not students are following the White Rose schemes of learning.
Familiarity helps
The Collins White Rose Maths series for GCSE is written in the same familiar style that students will be used to from the Key Stage 3 series. In a period of great change, seeing the same structure in the GCSE books as in Key Stage 3 will help reassure students that whilst their maths learning is moving on, they are still supported in the same way:
Are you ready? – Questions at the start of each chapter, or part of a chapter, to make sure they know the basics before they move on.
Worked examples – Clear, step-by-step guidance that explains how to interpret questions and make progress through the solutions.
Practice – Lots of opportunity to develop and practise key skills.
Consolidation – Opportunity to revisit if needed.
Stretch – Challenge for rapid graspers so they will never be bored! These will help Students studying Foundation tier towards a grade 5 and Higher tier students towards a grade 8 or 9, readying them for the demands of A level.
As with the Key Stage 3 books, solutions are provided so students know they are on the right track. There is also a glossary so students can look up words they might need a reminder about.
No tears with tiers!
As they enter Key Stage 4, many students may already feel anxious about their final grade and whether they will enter the Higher or Foundation tier for GCSE. The Collins White Rose Maths series for GCSE includes both tiers and uses the same format and style throughout. Even if students change tier, the design and structure will be familiar all the way up to examination time.
Understanding at the heart
Just as with the Key Stage 3 books, the Collins White Rose Maths series for GCSE uses pictures and models where appropriate to support learning. There are no “tricks”, just clearly explained well-structured mathematics. We believe the more students understand, the more they will remember and the more they will be able to apply.
The same approaches are revisited in the Collins White Rose Maths GCSE revision guides, again helping with the sense of familiarity and the complete secondary journey.
Examination practice
Students following the Collins White Rose Maths series for GCSE are of course now approaching very important examinations. To help them gain confidence throughout the course, there are examination style questions as reviews after every section. This supports their transition by showing what they are aiming for and giving them experience as they progress, rather than just at the end.
Two-book structure
Many GCSE books are overwhelmingly large with the entire content of GCSE mathematics covered in a single volume. This is potentially a very frightening prospect for students - all that maths to learn in two years! Instead, we have split the content into two books which teachers can use flexibly to support whatever scheme of learning they are using and students aren’t faced with a mountain of maths that’s too heavy to carry!
Book 1 covers Number; Algebra; Ratio, Proportion and Rates of Change
Book 2 Covers Geometry and Measures; Probability; Statistics.
Becoming successful mathematicians
At all key stages, the White Rose Maths ethos is to support students to become confident, independent mathematicians. We believe that this series of textbooks, which builds on students’ learning from Key Stage 3 using familiar approaches to increasingly complicated maths in fresh and exciting ways, will make their transition to formal GCSE study much smoother. They’ll also have a more positive attitude to maths and be more resilient as they’ll have bank of strategies and approaches they rely on when things get hard. The White Rose Maths motto is #MathsEveryoneCan and, whatever GCSE grade students are aiming for, the Collins White Rose books will definitely help students on their journey to examination success.
Ian Davies is the series editor of White Rose Maths for Key Stage 3, White Rose Maths for GCSE and White Rose Maths GCSE revision guides