Choosing between GCSE maths foundation & higher: a tale of two tiers

Based on Choosing GCSE maths exam tiers video.

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Foundation maths GCSE or higher maths GCSE? That is the question - of this blog. Maturity, self-confidence, knowledge, skill, and motivation are all elements that you have to take into account when deciding the right tier for the students you teach. Is there a good way to make a decision about higher or foundation maths GCSE? We’ve scoured the internet and asked maths specialists for their tips on getting the right tier, as well as making the right decisions at the right time.

What’s the difference between higher tier and foundation tier?

There are a few clearly defined differences between maths GCSE foundation and higher tier.

What are the differences in outcomes?

If a student takes a foundation tier GCSE maths course, the highest grade they can obtain is a grade 5.

A student who takes a higher tier GCSE maths course can obtain up to a grade 9 and a minimum of a 4. (According to Ofqual, there is a ‘safety net’ grade 3 for students who score a small number of marks below a grade 4).

What are the differences in papers?

In the exam papers themselves, there are differences in topics and how they are weighted between higher and foundation.

For example, there is a higher weighting towards algebra and geometry and measure in the higher tier paper. In the foundation paper, there is a higher weighting towards number, ratio, proportion, and rates of change.

Are there any similarities?

Students can achieve grades 3 to 5 on either paper, and some of the questions on the exam papers will be the same.

Cross-over questions are designed to help exam boards ensure that the difficulty of achieving the same grade on each paper is the same, ie. it’s as easy/difficult to get a 4 on the higher paper as it is on the foundation.

Can a student move from one tier to another?

Ideally, a tier is chosen for a pupil in year 9, in readiness for the next two years of teaching and learning. For most pupils, this will be the tier they take at the end of the two years.

However, it’s always possible that some students perform unexpectedly in their mock, or are showing signs of either potential, or lacking in self-confidence in lessons.

You can move students to a different tier at any point - even on the day of the exam (for which the school will be charged a fee). Moving a student from one tier to another is a serious decision that has to be well thought through because, either way, the student has missed content for the exam.

4 tips for choosing which tier

For the most part, choosing a tier for each student we teach comes pretty easily. But there are often a handful of students whom the decision is a little more complex. On the one hand, you want to provide students with the best possible opportunity to achieve in the exam. However, at the same time, the risk of a ‘fail’ on the higher paper can be too great. Use these tips to help you choose a tier for your students.

1. What came before

You know your students, and you’re likely to have lots of data regarding their prior attainment and expected achievement. This data will provide a clear picture of the potential of your students. If their target grade is a 7, 8, or 9, there’s no question they should be on the higher paper. Anything below that might be worth a closer look.

2. Practice papers and mock exams

There are some students whose past attainment data is no longer accurate for their ability or potential. For whatever reason, the student in front of you just doesn’t match the data. What can you do?

Past papers are a great place to start. Mock exams and practice papers help demonstrate the ability of the student in the moment.

Learning by Questions has a library of GCSE-style questions ready-made for year 10s and 11s. The resources are also sorted into higher, foundation and cross-over questions, meaning your students can have a crack at the right level for them.

The cross-over questions are particularly helpful for finding out if students have the ability to access content on the higher paper. Equally, if a student appears to be struggling to access the higher paper content, and you’re considering moving them to the foundation tier, their ability to access the cross over questions is a clear indicator of their potential.

3. Personality

Confidence isn’t everything, but it can definitely affect pupil performance in exams. If students lack self-belief, or they’ve consistently been struggling with topics like algebra and trigonometry, the resulting lack of confidence in these pupils can be catastrophic on the higher paper.

Sometimes, especially when taking future studies into account, a move to foundation tier can give students that extra helping hand when they don’t need more than a 5.

4. What they want to do in the future

One last thing to consider when choosing tiers for your students is what they want to do in the future. After considering past attainment, mock performance, and self-confidence levels, do they want to continue studying maths or a related subject? If they intend to continue their studies in maths, it might be more appropriate to enter the student into the higher tier. If they have no intention of studying maths or related subjects in the future, foundation could be the way to go.

When to move a student and how

If you’re considering moving a student from one tier to another, your approach will be different depending on the move being made.

Moving a student from higher to foundation

Moving a student from higher to foundation can be a really smart decision for some pupils. If a student performs particularly badly on a mock, demonstrates a lack of confidence in class with key topics that appear on the higher paper, or has acute exam fear, a move to foundation could ease the pressure.

This decision might be made late in the day, although ideally with as much time to revisit year 9 topics as possible, as it could have been sometime since the student studied these.

Moving a student from foundation to higher

You’re on a much stricter time frame if you have seen that student has the potential to achieve more by being in the higher tier.

It is perhaps the rarer move of the two, although not impossible. This move needs to be done within a few months of year 10. Any later than that and the student is going to have too much to catch up on to be able to achieve in the exam.

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Teaching foundation and higher in one class

If movement between classes isn’t possible, teaching to foundation and higher tier in one classroom is going to be a challenge, but not impossible. Use all the resources you have at your disposal, including asking colleagues teaching the respective tiers in your department for any resources they can give to you.

Learning by Questions can be a helping hand with this. Content is pitched at the relevant tier for the student, meaning differentiation is already done for the teacher. Teachers don’t have to create two sets of resources and provide two lots of explanations. Students can learn through the platform and the teacher can provide intervention to who needs it, when they need it - whether they are studying for foundation GCSE maths or higher.

Conversations with students and parents

A move from one tier to another can be stress-inducing for everyone involved. Once the decision has been made, you will need to speak to the student and the parent/guardian. Use these tips to prepare for any difficult conversations you might need to have.

1. Check in with students consistently

It’s unlikely that a decision to move tiers happens suddenly. More likely is that you have been checking in with students and having conversations about attainment and how they’re feeling over a significant period of time. Having one-to-ones with students over how they’re feeling about the exam will help keep you informed and make truthful conversations easier further down the line.

2. Telling senior leadership

You’ll also need to keep your head of department and SLT informed of the decision to move a student from one tier to another. It’s likely that your head of department has been the one to make the ultimate decision, but if you have reservations about a student's tier entry, don’t be afraid to voice those concerns. SLT will also need to be kept informed. If a tier move has been due to a lack of confidence, or a change in attitude, this could also be a sign of a child protection issue - another reason to keep SLT informed.

3. Letting parents know

The most difficult party to tell about a change of tiers can often be the parents/guardians. Always make a phone call before sending out any official letter or email informing them of the change. This will give parents the opportunity to ask questions, first of which is always going to be ‘why?’.

Use data from mock exams and recent assessments as part of this conversation; it is much harder to argue against facts and figures rather than opinions. That said, don’t be afraid to bring up the well-being of the student, particularly when switching from higher to foundation. If you have seen a child stressed about the complexity of higher content, this can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy that they won't do well at that level in the exam. Communicate that; the potential grade and the mental health of the student is important.

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