Level 5 GCSE Maths – Session 4

Assessing learner needs

Welcome to the fourth session

By the end of the session you will be able to:

  • Evaluate and use approaches to initial and diagnostic assessment
  • Involve learners actively in the process of initial and diagnostic assessment, target setting and the ongoing planning of learning 
  • Use different assessment for learning strategies to build on learners’ existing knowledge and understanding
  • Adapt own teaching to accommodate the individual needs of all learners
  • Identify and use learners’ mistakes and misconceptions to help them re-evaluate their understanding of mathematical ideas
  • Relate maths assessment to the objectives of GCSE mathematics
  • Plan teaching and learning to meet the individual needs of learners, including SEND accessibility and inclusion.

Session 4 PowerPoint slides

Here is Julia’s facilitator PowerPoint presentation for session 4:

Session Padlet

Here is the Padlet for this session.

Post-session tasks

Task 1: Self-assess your maths skills

  • Familiarise yourself with the new Subject content & assessment objectives for GCSE in mathematics.

    Note down topics which you need to study further yourself or develop materials for.

    This will be necessary for your Personal Development Plan as you start to develop short, medium and longer term plans, subsequent to the course end.

Task 2: Explore the problem-solving tasks available at

Task 3: Your Reflective Diary
Regular entries into your reflective diary will aid the essay writing. Remember to add an entry into your Reflective Diary – you may choose to download and print this and include a physical entry or try to create an online diary using a tool such as Sutori or a Padlet Timeline. Examples are given on the Padlet. 

The completion of a reflective diary will assist you when writing your large assignment, if you are seeking accreditation.

Activities to prepare for the next session

Make sure you know how initial and diagnostic assessment are carried out in your organisation and how ILPs are used to track learners’ progress.

Further reading for participants completing accreditation

Pennant, J. (2013) Developing a Classroom Culture That Supports a Problem-solving Approach to Mathematics [available at: https://nrich.maths.org/10341]

Polya, G. (1957) How To Solve It – A New Aspect of Mathematical Method (2nd edition) Princeton: Princeton university Press.

Way, J. (2011) Co-operative Problem Solving: Pieces of the Puzzle Approach [available at: http://nrich.maths.org/2547 ] 

All course materials were developed as part of an ETF programme by ccConsultancy and they both should be acknowledged if any material is used on other projects.