Setting Overview
The purpose of setting is to maximise the efficient delivery of the curriculum, by having groups of students with similar abilities taught together. The placement of students into sets will be based on a number of factors: performance in the end of year examination, test results, homework and classwork. A student’s progress is monitored continuously through tests and teacher assessments. A full review of the setting takes place at the end of each academic year.
Year 7
During Year 7, the students are taught mathematics in mixed ability form groups for the first few weeks. A formal test takes place at the beginning of October, based on the work that they have covered in their first few weeks at WGGS. The results of this test together with their performance in homework and classwork are used to place students into sets within two groups of three forms. This means that the students from three Year 7 forms are placed into four sets:
| Forms 7A 7B 7C |
Forms 7D 7E 7F |
| Set 1a |
Set 1b |
| Set 2a |
Set 2b |
| Set 3a |
Set 3b |
| Set 4a |
Set 4b |
This enables the department to have smaller numbers of students in sets 3 and 4.
From Year 8 onwards students are placed in sets across the year group.
Year 8 and 9
The following structure is currently employed. There will be seven sets with smaller numbers of students in sets 6 and 7. Sets 2a and 2b are parallel sets, as are sets 4a and 4b
| Set |
National Curriculum Level Coverage |
| 1 |
6 - 8 |
| 2a and 2b |
6 - 8 |
| 4a and 4b |
5 - 7 |
| 6 |
5 - 7 |
| 7 |
4 - 6 |
The sets remain fairly static throughout the two years. However, at the end of Year 9 the setting structure is significantly overhauled.
Year 10 and 11
Students study the two-tier Mathematics GCSE and will be entered for either the higher or foundation tier. If a student sits the higher tier paper, she could achieve grades A* to D. If she sits the foundation paper, she could achieve grades C to G. It is important to note that, if a student does not achieve sufficient marks for grade D on the higher tier paper, then the paper will be ungraded, leaving her without a Mathematics GCSE grade.
The students are taught in sets in years 10 and 11 with smaller numbers of students in the lower sets.
During Year 10, there will be a number of common tests, as well as the end of year examinations. The performance of students in these examinations, as well as in class and homework, will be carefully monitored. The final decision about the appropriate tier of GCSE entry will be made after the mock examinations in Year 11.
Year 12 and 13
A large number of students opt to study Mathematics and Further Mathematics at AS and A level. We follow the Edexcel syllabus.
Mathematics students study three modules, C1, C2 and S1 or M1, in Year 12 which leads to an AS qualification in Mathematics. Students choose to study either Statistics (S1) or Mechanics (M1) as their applied module. The majority of students continue to study the course in Year 13 during which they study a further three modules C3, C4 and S2 or M2.
Further Mathematics students are taught separately and have more lessons than those students studying Mathematics only. The two year course requires them to complete the six modules studied at A level Mathematics as well as a further six modules that extend their work with Pure Mathematics as well as Mechanics and Statistics.
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