We have over seven fully dedicated Maths classrooms and we are all highly experienced teachers of Mathematics. All the teachers in the department are experts at teaching A Level Mathematics and are highly motivated to help you to reach your potential. The Mathematics department always runs support sessions outside of the normal lessons to aid you with your homework and exam preparation.

This is a two year course, with all exams taken at the end of the second year.

This course is more difficult than A Level Mathematics:

It explores a wider range of mathematical topics, some of which will be completely different to what you have covered before, and it demands a robust approach to mathematical techniques and notation. The Pure Mathematics units introduce ideas such as Complex numbers and Matrices. It also builds on your skills from GCSE and A Level Mathematics including Algebra, Graphs and Trigonometry.

Further Mathematics takes forward ideas such as complex numbers and matrices introduced in the first year, and introduces ideas such as differential equations. It also expands the algebraic and calculus work of A Level Mathematics.

While many of the ideas you will meet in Pure Mathematics are interesting in their own right, they also serve as an important foundation for other branches of Mathematics, especially Mechanics and Statistics. The units we offer are reviewed regularly to meet the needs of our students. The syllabus will offer a range of options from the more in-depth study of pure topics to the expansion of the applied ideas covered in the A Level Mathematics course.

Having a qualification in Further Mathematics in addition to your A Level Mathematics will give you an advantage in a variety of careers and is critical for some degrees. The greater experience of the sophisticated algebraic, statistical and mechanical ideas will increase your ability to succeed in Higher Education courses which make use of this level of Mathematics. These courses or careers include: Mathematics, Engineering, Physics, Computing and ICT.

How is the course delivered?

Each group is taught by a specialist Mathematics teacher each year. This means you will have one teacher for the Further Mathematics A Level and another for your A Level Mathematics lessons.

Your A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics classes will be paired together, so the class for the Further Mathematics will have the same group of students as the A Level Mathematics. This allows us to avoid overlap in the delivery and adapt the curriculum to suit both courses.

Support outside lessons is available, both informally and formally. Regular “Mathematics Clinic” sessions are run during the college week and all of the department are available for support at lunchtime.