Three codebreakers covering area using trig, the sine rule and cosine rule respectively. Make sure that students do not round any answers until right at the end (it does state on each to round you “final answer”) and reveal the three cheesy jokes. These work well in my classes as starters, plenaries or main tasks. Each one is an anagram so that students are not tempted to guess letters. The final question on each is more of a problem solving question.

Essentially students must use y=mx+c to answer questions then reveal the punchline to a joke. There is a grid and five lines from which to refer to, but this includes parallel and perpendicular lines and their equations as well.

Find the missing coordinates on the functions to reveal the punchline to a joke. Most involve linear functions but there are others towards the end; the challenge increases as the questions progress. Useful as a starter, plenary or main task and students seem to enjoy finding the punchlines.

Answer the questions, which get progressively more difficult, involving one or more of the trigonometric rules to reveal an anagram for the punchline of a joke. My classes seem to like these, the cheesier the joke, the better and given that this is an anagram they cannot guess the order of the letters for the answer.

Another one of the “answer the questions, reveal the joke” classics (the joke is a cracker by the way). This is an attempt to force students to solve equations rather than try numbers as I am seeing some of this with some students.

Six trees to climb on percentages, covering equivalence, of an amount, change and repeated change. Each tree gets increasingly challenging as the tree is scaled so these might be useful for a plenary or starter to inform you of where they feel comfortable/challenged.

Six trees taking students through simplifying, fractions of an amount, add/subtracting, multiplying/dividing, mixed numbers. Four questions on each getting progressively harder so students can choose the level they start (and finish). Good for starters or plenaries(?).

This came about after a colleague of mine (a Spurs fan) was moaning about a VAR decision that prevented Spurs from winning a Champions League match. Another colleague (a Brighton fan this time) suggested we check the errors in measurement and this was born. It is a bit of an experiment and I am aware that error is built in to the systems but I thought it was a nice practical use of something we cover in GCSE Maths. There are four scenarios: one tennis, two cricket and one football; questions are quite wordy but need to be to explain the laws of the sports in question.

Ten “trees” of increasing difficulty, each with three or four questions also of increasing difficulty. Answers are provided on separate slides and this is designed to allow students to choose their start (and end?) point or to be used as a plenary in each case.

Eight trees that students can climb based on their knowledge of indices. The idea is to continually ramp up the difficulty and allow students to choose their start point. They start from the most basic writing using powers, laws of indices up to simplifying using fractional and negative indices.

Includes one and two brackets for expanding, including simplifying as well. I wanted to have 8 trees in total so also put in a completing the square tree. Each tree has 3 or 4 questions of increasing difficulty; students choose their start and finish which should allow you to judge where to pitch your teaching; or you could just use it however you like.

There are four trees where students can work from bottom to top, choosing an appropriately challenging start point if they wish. This is “introduction to algebra” stuff, I will do expanding and factorising on a separate file but these could offer nice starters or plenaries. It contains adding/subtracting as well as multiplying variables and collecting like terms.

Each tree has three or four questions that get progressively more challenging as you work your way to the top. The idea is for a student to start where they think they’ll be challenged and then move up from that point, but ultimately it can be used however.

Solve some relatively simple trigonometric equations and reveal the punchline to a joke. This was written with AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate in mind but could be used at A Level.

The usual answer the questions, reveal the joke, this time using multiple circle theorems or forming and solving equations using circle theorems.

This is a non-calculator sheet, using knowledge of exact trig values to solve problems. The joke is obviously hilarious… Designed for GCSE or AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate.

Find an expression in terms of x for y using circle theorems and discover the punchline to a cheesy joke. Designed for AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate but could be used as an extension at GCSE. Typo corrected!

Casey is now on the final chapter of the AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate: matrices, including multiplying and transformations. Casey requires help because mistakes are being made; can your classes help and explain what Casey has done wrong? These work well as discussion activities in class in my experience, but use them (or not) how you wish,

Casey is working through the AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate and has reached the Calculus chapter; however, Casey requires the help of your class. Spot the mistakes, correct them and explain where Casey has gone wrong. These work well for discussions in class.

Casey is doing the AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate and struggling; Casey requires you class’ help to explain where they have gone wrong and then correct it. This chapter deals with trigonometry and Pythagoras including £D and non-right-angled triangles.