Examination Boards
In England maths is taught in schools following quite a prescriptive route, which is continually evolving. Recent changes include a change to the assessment at key stage 3 from externally assessed SATs to teacher assessments. The teaching still follows the National Programme of study. At GCSE there are now only two assessment tiers (Foundation and Higher) following the demise of the Intermediate tier.
From 2010 new specifications will be taught to include 'functional' mathematics.
At GCE A level, the grades are being expanded to include an A* for the top performers (>90%) from 2010
Key Assessment Stages School year Assessed by Expected attainment level
for majority of pupils
Key stage 1 Year 2 Teacher assessment 2
Key stage 2 Year 6 External SATs 4
Key Stage 3 Year 9 Teacher assessment 5 / 6
GCSE Year 11 External exam board C
GCE AS/A2 Year 13/college External exam board
The main examination boards offering GCSE and GCE courses and qualifications in England are AQA, OCR, and Edexcel. Their respective websites contain detailed specifications for all courses provided and access to past papers and specimen papers.
AQA www.aqa.org.uk
Edexcel www.edexcel.org.uk
OCR www.ocr.org.uk
