Contextualising post-16 GCSE
Mathematics: a toolkit
About the toolkit
Introduction
This toolkit has been developed for teaching practitioners involved in planning and delivering
the maths elements of 16 to19 Study Programmes - both specialist maths teaching
practitioners and vocational teaching practitioners who wish to embed maths in their
delivery.
One of the key features of 16-19 Study Programmes is an expectation that learners who
have not achieved grade C or better in GCSE Mathematics will continue to work towards
achieving it. The journey to this goal can help learners to develop skills that will be directly
applicable to their future work and life experiences. Achieving this goal can also open doors
to employment opportunities that would otherwise not be attainable, as GCSE Mathematics
is a qualification that is well recognised by employers and transferable across all sectors.
Most learners who have failed to achieve grade C or better in GCSE Mathematics, however,
feel very negative at the prospect of continuing to study maths post-16. They often suffer
from low levels of confidence in maths and may feel a sense of failure, so that learning
maths becomes more challenging. These learners need a fresh approach distinct from the
way they were taught in school, ideally one that helps them to see a clear line of sight from
the maths they need to learn to the workplace.
Teaching and learning maths in contexts that relate directly to a learner’s vocational studies,
work experience or home life, can help learners to feel maths is less threatening, as well as
making it more meaningful to them. This can help learners to develop a more positive
attitude to maths and a deeper and more sustained understanding of mathematical
concepts.
This toolkit has been developed to encourage you to make greater use of context your
delivery of post-16 GCSE Mathematics. It aims to support you developing and using your
own contextualised resources. It also encourages you to share these resources with others,
and to adapt and use those that others have developed.
Why contextualise?
Using vocational contexts in teaching GCSE Mathematics to post-16 learners can help them
re-engage with maths. In addition to increasing their chances of GCSE success, this can
also improve their ability to use appropriate maths in their work and home life.
Contextualised resources not only support the teaching of maths in maths-focused lessons,
but can also help vocational teaching staff to embed maths teaching into the vocational
aspects of Study Programmes. This approach reinforces maths learning and helps to give
learners the best possible chance of success. This approach is widely recognised as
effective practice and is encouraged by Ofsted.
Using context can be particularly effective in engaging learners early on in their programmes
of study; however, at some point it is necessary to move towards pure maths in order to
prepare learners for their examinations. Indeed there are some topics in GCSE Mathematics
that are not easily contextualised. For this reason, in addition to guides and exemplar
resources to help you to make greater use of contextualisation, the toolkit also contains a
guide on preparing learners for examinations.
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Why GCSE Mathematics?
The Skills Company
The Skills Company is a not-for-profit
training provider based in Greater
Manchester. It is one of the largest providers
of Apprenticeships and Traineeships in the
North West and also caters for learners
following Study Programmes.
The Skills Company offers Functional Skills
Mathematics up to Level 2 and is in its
second year of delivering GCSE
Mathematics. Learners currently
undertaking GCSE Mathematics range from
school leavers to adults wishing to
undertake Apprenticeships for which a
grade C is an entry requirement.
To study GCSE Mathematics learners are
required to either be school leavers with a
grade D, or to achieve a Level 2 in their
initial assessment. All learners also
undertake a mock foundation paper and,
ideally, achieve a minimum of grade D.
Last year all learners undertook the
Foundation paper with AQA in which they
can achieve up to a C. This year The Skills
Company is consider entering some
learners for the Higher paper, where is it
considered that grade B or better is
achievable.
Crackerjack Training
Crackerjack Training is a private training
company based in the West Midlands with
over 500 students studying a range of
Childcare qualifications.
Whilst many contextualised resources have
been developed for Functional Skills there are
fewer contextualised materials designed for
GCSE Mathematics. Where contextualised
resources for GCSE Mathematics do exist,
they have generally been designed with prerather than post-16 learners in mind.
How the toolkit was developed
It was decided that the toolkit should focus on
some specific context areas in order to
exemplify how the approach could be applied
to a broader range of contexts. These areas
were:
Construction and the built environment
Health, social care and childcare
Business, administration and entrepreneurship
General life and personal interests
The first two were selected because the
vocations attract large numbers of learners
who are yet to achieve grade C or better in
GCSE Mathematics. The last two were
selected because they have some relevance
to all vocational learners.
In developing the toolkit MEI worked closely
with four different providers, each working on
one of the four context areas:
Skills Solutions: Construction and the built
environment
Crackerjack Training: Health, social care
and childcare
Barking and Dagenham College:
Business, administration and entrepreneurship
Skills Plus: General life and personal
interests
Their qualifications range from Level 1
Study Programme for 16-19 year olds, Level
2 Traineeships and Level 2/3
Apprenticeships in Childcare.
They currently work with over 500
employers in a variety of settings; day
nurseries, schools, pre-schools and before
and after school clubs.
Crackerjack Training currently employs 35
practitioners, and has recently become an
AQA GCSE centre.
The grid and guides included in the toolkit
were initially developed by MEI. They were
reviewed by teaching practitioners from the
four providers. Each provider then used these
tools to help them develop a set of exemplar
resources for their particular context area.
The exemplar resources were reviewed by
MEI and then trialled by the providers. This
involved several practitioners using them with
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different groups of learners. The practitioners
also used the draft toolkit to help them develop
their own resources from scratch.
During the development phase the draft toolkit
was presented at four of the Association of
Employment and Learning Providers’ Sector
Forum meetings and as a result further providers
offered to review the toolkits.
Feedback gathered from all of these sources,
including the learners who participated in the
trials, was used to improve the toolkit.
The college has over 5000 students enrolled
on a range of part-time and full-time courses
ranging from Entry 3 to Level 3 and above.
Students studying vocational programmes
complement their studies by also working
towards qualifications in maths and English.
In the last three years the GCSE
Mathematics cohort has grown from a small
number of part-time adult learners to over
300 full-time vocational and part-time
students. Classes of approximately 15-20
students are delivered by subject
specialists. Viability for GCSE is determined
at the start of the academic year through
consideration of a student’s prior learning
and a comprehensive initial assessment.
Further sources of information
CPD resources
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Barking and Dagenham College
Barking and Dagenham College is a further
education and skills provider situated in the
north east of London with several campuses
across multiple sites.
Learning Mathematics in Context
Maths at Work guides
Reports and research
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Dalby, D (2013). The connections and
contradictions in student responses to
contextualised tasks
Dudzic, S. (2013). GCSE Mathematics retake
for vocational students GCSE teaching from
2015
National Research Centre for Adult Literacy
and Numeracy. (2006) “You wouldn't expect a
maths teacher to teach plastering…”
Embedding literacy, language and numeracy
in post-16 vocational programmes – the
impact on learning and achievement.
Ofsted (2014) Teaching, learning and
assessment in further education and skills what works and why
Pearson, D., Richardson, G.B., and Sawyer,
J.M. (2013). The Oregon Applied Academics
Project: Final Report.
Acknowledgements
MEI is grateful to the Department for Education
for providing funding to develop this guide; to the
Association of Employment and Learning
Providers (AELP) for coordinating the work with
the providers involved in the project; and to all of
the other individuals and organisations who
contributed to its development.
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Skills Plus
Skills Plus is part of Kent County Council
Community Learning and Skills. Functional
Skills English and Mathematics at Entry
Level 1 to Level 2 are delivered to a wide
range of learners, from those who have
learning difficulties and have always
struggled with basic skills through to
learners who just want to brush up their
English and maths skills.
All of Skills Plus’s learners receive detailed
initial and diagnostic assessments and
individual learning plans are contextualised
to learner interests and needs.
Together with Kent Training and
Apprenticeships, Skills Plus meets the
needs of a wide range of learners from 16+
who are not in full time education, and in its
work-based learning environments embed
English and maths tuition into Work Ready
Extra courses and vocational contexts such
as Health and Social Care and Business
Administration.
As an organisation, Community Learning
and Skills has successfully delivered GCSE
for many years. Currently, Skills Plus is
delivering GCSE English and GCSE Maths
courses at selected Kent venues with a view
to expanding this provision in 2015/16.
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March 2015
Mathematics in Education and Industry
Monckton House
Epsom Centre
White Horse Business Park
Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 0XG
t 01225 776776
e office@mei.org.uk
www.mei.org.uk