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A short, snappy starter which refreshes pupil’s mental arithmetic skills and provides a healthy mix of challenge and competition. This starter is suitable for all maths classes in secondary school and those in KS2. The task is this: Using digits from 1-9, make an addition with two 3 digit numbers to make another 3 digit number. Each digit from 1-9 can only be used once (carrying is allowed). . This could be done as a competition to encourage group work where pupils (in teams) are set a certain amount of time and must come up with as many different additions as they can. This starter is also useful for generating discussions as the pupils may notice certain patterns in the answers (i.e. the digits of the final answer always add up to 18) and the commutative law of addition (3 + 5 = 5 + 3).

A selection of 8 starters on probability related to real life which are suitable for KS3 and GCSE students. The starters encourage students to think laterally, being similar to brainteasers. Topics covered include: experimental probability, listing outcomes, sample space diagrams, relative frequency, tree diagrams, probability scales and permutations/combinations. Each starter begins with a problem or statement which the children must decide is true or false through investigation, giving reasons why this is the case. This exercise would be perfect for encouraging discussions as students may present a wide variety of explanations.

This investigation (includes teacher notes and worksheets) is suited to very able KS4 groups and those in KS5 studying Maths. It covers the topics of convergence, subject of a formula and even can be expanded to iteration for more advanced learners. Pupils are given a starting value of a sequence, which they multiply by 3, add 10 to then and finally divide by 4 to generate the next term in the sequence. They then multiply this value by 3, add ten to it and divide by 4 to get the next term and so forth, generating the sequence in an iterative manner until the sequence converges. The goal of this investigation is to find a relationship between the initial starting value of the sequence and that which it converges to. This can be explained in a satisfying algebraic way using subject of the formula although pupils may offer other alternative explanations.

This resource handily introduces compound interest to more able KS3 groups and GCSE in the form of adding interest to a bank account. Other topics covered include percentages and decimal multipliers. This resource is an investigation (with teacher notes and accompanying worksheets) which gets students to investigate whether how often interest is added to a bank account effects the total amount of interest. The problem is so: I invest £1,000 in a savings account at an interest rate of 3.1% p.a. for one year. What interval at which the interest is paid will get me the most money? The students can then be guided to calculating the total amount of interest when it is added, daily montly etc. before being guided to an overall formula to solve the problem.

A really useful resource which is tests KS3 pupils on their understanding of mode, median, mean and range. This could also be used as a summative test of pupils’ knowledge or as a homework/revision task and is suitable for GCSE foundation students as well.

This is an excellent Powerpoint covering all the topics in Percentages at KS3 including converting between fractions, decimals and percentages, finding a percentage of an amount, the unitary method and percentage increase/decrease. Suitable for a revision session (exam practice), a summative test for students and to check and refresh their prior knowledge of percentages…

A worksheet which includes 10 questions each on percentage increase and decrease. This resource is mainly suitable for KS3 students, although it may also benefit GCSE Foundation students. As well as increasing or decreasing a number by a certain percentage, worded questions involving VAT are also included. This resource has multiple applications: it could be useful as a check of the prior knowledge of students or to check their understanding of what has been taught as a summative test or included as the main activity within a lesson.

This resource is a comprehensive glossary of all the key terms and formulae used in KS3 Maths. It’s excellent for revision, as an aid to in-class work and building cross-curricular links with English/Literacy. The definitions are sorted by each area of mathematics they correspond to (Number, Algebra, Data, Shape and Space) and are explained in a simple, concise manner. There’s also a section detailing key formulae used in geometry, labeled diagrams of parts of a circle and advice on the different types of questions students will have to answer with guided examples.

This resource contains a set of extension questions for GCSE Higher Maths (which are grouped by topic) which are good at stretching pupils (especially more able students) and summatively assessing their knowledge of topics. The questions progress in difficulty and encourage pupils to think deeper and reflectively about what they’ve learned including evaluating, conjecturing, considering special cases and explaining/justifying. This resource would also work well as a plenary activity or to be set as homework.

This powerpoint contains a whole lesson on translations of 2-D shapes for KS3 and GCSE foundation pupils. It covers how to translate 2-D shapes, column vectors, properties of shape, symmetry and co-ordinates. It can be delivered in an interactive manner, with plenty of opportunities for pupils to discuss and consolidate knowledge. There are also strong cross-curricular links with literacy and art.

This is an excellent resource of the old level descriptors pupils have to meet/fulfill in KS3 Maths. It’s very useful in helping teachers formatively assess pupils’ progress and acts as a aid for self and peer assessment. Each level is structured by clear outcomes of operations and activities across all 4 areas (number, geometry, algebra, data handling) students must be able to complete to meet the criteria for achieving the level. As well as boosting cross-curricular links I also used this resource as a poster/wall display and a handout for pupils to self and peer assess their progress.

This resource contains a set of worksheets on translations and is suitable for KS3 and GCSE Maths classes. They can be used as exercises to complete in class, homework or for revision. It contains a set of worksheets (with increase difficulty) on translations covering co-ordinates, describing translations of 2-D shapes, column vectors and worded problems involving translations. They allow effective differentiation and have strong cross-curricular links with literacy and art.