Welcome to my 171st gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.1. GCSE Revision UpdateThere's no shortage of GCSE revision resources but I made another revision mat anyway, because I needed one for a revision session the day before Paper 2.There are separate versions for Foundation and Higher and they can both be downloaded from TES.There have ..read more

Welcome to my 169th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.1. GCSE Revision ResourcesI have a page dedicated to GCSE revision resources which had a few new additions last week:Dr Austin has started making full coverage revision grids. These are sets of increasingly challenging grids for both number and algebra, with more on the way.John ..read more

I've written two posts about curriculum - this is the second.My first post was about how to shoehorn an oversized curriculum into a limited number of lessons. Dan Draper summed it up nicely: "you can’t win but you can pick how you lose”.In today's post I've written more generally about curriculum reform and some opportunities to make changes in maths when the time comes.*****I'm told that ..read more

I've written two posts about curriculum - this is the first.Recently I've been contacted by a lot of teachers and Heads of Maths who've asked me for ideas on how to squeeze our massive curriculum into limited contact time. I'll address this in today's post.My next post will be about future curriculum reform and some opportunities to make changes in maths... when the time comes.******The GCSE ..read more

Welcome to my 168th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.1. Revision ResourcesI have a page dedicated to GCSE revision resources which is the most visited page on my website. It's had around 130 000 views since I wrote it back in 2016 and it gets particularly busy in April and May. Here are a few recent additions:John Corbett ..read more

One of the most controversial topics to be added to GCSE in recent years is exact trig values. Although trigonometry has always been on Higher Tier GCSE, before 2017 it only ever appeared on the calculator paper. When the Department for Education did a big curriculum and assessment re-jig, exact trig values were moved from A level to GCSE - and, in what we can only assume was some kind of ..read more

Everyone loves surds, right? They're so much fun...Since 2017 I've produced a series of CPD sessions, each one covering an individual maths topic. I call this my 'Topics in Depth' project. These CPD sessions focus on curriculum, assessment, subject knowledge, pedagogy and resources.Thanks to generous sponsorship from AQA, Craig Barton and I recently recorded a new set of Topics in Depth ..read more

Welcome to my 167th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.1. PolypadI've blogged about Polypad before, and used it myself in a lesson on nets last week. My students were suitably impressed! Recently there's been a series of tweets about some really cool stuff that Polypad can do - these are definitely worth a look. Click on the tweets ..read more

This is a contribution to the series of writings called 'Dose of Don', begun by Anne Watson, which delve into the collection of tasks on Don Steward’s blog. This piece is written by Sam Blatherwick (@blatherwick_sam). Many thanks to Sam for giving me permission to share his writing here. For the background on this series, please see the post Lines and Angles on Square Grids. Don was very generous ..read more

Since 2017 I've produced a series of CPD sessions, each one covering an individual maths topic. I call this my 'Topics in Depth' project. These CPD sessions focus on curriculum, assessment, subject knowledge, pedagogy and resources. Maths teachers simply don't get enough time to research topics thoroughly when they plan lessons. In this project I aim to support teachers by doing the research for ..read more