Mathematics Department :

S3-S4 Foundation/General or General/Credit

Courses :
Standard Grade, Access 3 followed by Personal Money Management Intermediate 1

Levels
    Foundation /Access 3
    General
    Credit

Aims

To progress pupils’ mathematical knowledge and numeracy skills.
To develop in every pupil the ability to apply that knowledge to solve problems.
To provide challenges in mathematical contexts.

All pupils will follow the course at an appropriate level and the particular exam presentation will be decided in fourth year. The courses are designed to encourage mathematical thinking and to prepare them for adult life. The interactive whiteboard, internet websites and mathematical activities will play an increasing role in learning and teaching.

Pupils will be allocated to courses on the basis of assessment, attitude, behaviour and attendance in Second year. Where pupils show an improvement or, are having difficulties, they will be moved to an appropriate class.

Content
The Foundation Level /Access 3 courses are intended to develop and practise basic skills in finding answers to problems of a kind familiar in everyday life, for example, those involving money, savings, percentage, measurement, shape, time, extracting information, graphs, etc.

At General Level the courses includes all the work of the previous level and other topics such as equations and their graphs, expressions and powers, triangles, circles, lines, trigonometry, etc.

Credit Level courses are of a more demanding nature and can be applied to solve problems in real and abstract situations.

The Personal Finance Award will give young people the skills to be able to cope confidently and effectively with basic financial encounters as well as managing money. The Award consists of two units, successful completion being acredited at Intermediate 1

Unit 1 Students gain an understanding of 'money'. They learn about sources of income, how to store and access money and how to use a budget.

Unit 2 Prepares student to deal with bills and budgeting. Students will look at different ways of buying goods and compare different deals.

All of the courses above can be used as a basis for further study and applied in other subjects.

Assessment
All pupils sit two test papers, except Access 3, paper 1 (non-calculator) and paper 2 (calculator). Each paper covers questions of a routine and problem-solving nature.

Other types of assessment used are homework exercises, finishing off class work, short assessments in class and formal exams using the SQA format of which the most significant are the prelims in S4.

Tutorials

Tutorials will take place between 3.45pm and 4.30pm.
Standard Grade
    S3 - Wednesday - Mrs Davidson Room 210
    General - Wednesday - Mrs Stevenson Room 205
    Credit - Monday - Miss Hannah Room 203

Find out more about our courses :

S1 Mathematics (Curriculum for Excellence)

S2 Mathematics (5-14 Curriculum)

S3/4 Standard Grade / Access3 / Money Management