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What is it?
With GCSEs very much hurtling towards us, I know I am always on the lookout for useful resources and activities to use with my Year 11s. There is so much stuff out there that us teachers are very much in danger of cognitive overload ourselves trying to sift through and find the gold, and there is a definite danger hat throwing too much stuff at our students will lead to very little sticking. So, I am very choosy what I give my students, especially in these last few precious weeks. But this resource is going straight into my regular routine. It is designed for use with Year 10 students, but it is perfect for my Year 11 class who are striving for Grades 7, 8 and 9. It consists of 16 sets of questions – complete with answers – that cover a wide range of topics. But what I particularly love is the choice of topics – they are tricky! So, we have surds, proportion tables, Venn Diagrams, straight line graphs, challenging equations, and more.

How can it be used?
This is the kind of thing I wish I had stumbled upon about 6 months ago! It would be perfect for my regular low-stakes quizzes. However, better late than never! Projecting up – or printing out, if you have any budget left! – one of these sets of a questions each week provides an excellent start to a lesson, and a perfect means of ensuring multiple topics are fresh and secure in students’ minds. When I tried this with my Year 11 class, it quickly became apparent that there were gaps in their knowledge, particularly with the tricky factorising questions. I decided not to tackle itt there and then, but instead come back to it when I was better prepared. It is worth also saying that this resource comes complete with a beautifully designed tacking sheet that, if you use this over the longer term, can be used to build up a record of students’ performance. This will certainly be coming into play with next year’s Year 11 from September.

Thanks so much for sharing
Craig Barton

Download: GCSE 1-9 Higher GCSE Fortnightly skills assessment
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