Three slides with different differentiation problems. The first asks students to differentiate, find a gradient and equation of a tangent at the given point; the second asks the same but the equation of the normal at the given point; the third asks students to find the turning/stationary points. I have thrown in a bit of integration (by stealth) as well just as a challenge… and this could be used for IGCSE or A/AS Level.

I needed something to go through substitution in a practical sense with students who lack confidence with algebra generally. I cam up with this which is not perfect but gets the baby bathed as it were. It aims to build up in difficulty using taxi fares and then bespoke furniture making and should allow students to gain confidence with substitution.

Mick Carter, landlord of the Queen Vic in Eastenders, requires help with some fractions that he’s trying to shift. Can your class help him? This involves converting between mixed and improper fractions as well as calculating with them. Eastenders theme tune is optional…

This is essentially forming and solving equations using angle facts and percentage change skills. I have used angles at a point on line, angles in a triangle, quadrilateral and a pentagon. Each gets more challenging as it goes in a bid to scaffold the activity.

Two ratios blend into one… and form a fish-related pun. Great for starters, plenaries or main tasks (some people use them for homework). Question 1 is now corrected; I clearly needed to warm up.

Answer the questions, reveal the fish-related joke. You know how these work by now. Ideal for online lessons, homework or in class tasks.

Students are given a set of lines and have to solve the simultaneous equations; some need to be rearranged as well. I tend to use this as a starter or right at the beginning of a topic as the answers are there allowing students who understand get on and the teacher to help those who require help.

Another music-based joke to work out; this involves percentage of a number, percentage change and reverse percentages. Popular in class and online; the music concept from a student I teach!

Yet another one of these; answer the questions, figure out the anagram, laugh a very tiny bit (or groan)… students seem to like them.

Hazel shows no workings, Mabel makes errors. Each gets marks (or not as the case may be) for questions but Mabel gets more even when Hazel is correct. This idea was from a colleague who wanted to emphasise the importance of showing a clear method and the potential to get more marks even with an incorrect answer. The intention is to get students to discuss where marks are gained and where they are lost as well as them correcting Mabel.

Lionel doesn’t do workings; he loses most of the marks on a question which requires workings therefore. Can your students help him with inequalities, forming quadratics, equations and expanding brackets?

More Lionel stuff here; he doesn’t write his workings so loses loads of marks. Can your students help him? This is slightly more challenging than “Number 1”, involving standard form, LCM (involving prime factors), proportion, mixed numbers.

Help Lionel gain full credit for his answers (he gives no working whatsoever); this one involves recurring decimals to fractions, surds (rationalising and expanding two brackets), proportion (recipes).

This is designed to force students in to showing their workings by giving them the answer by asking “show that” questions. This involves equations of lines including perpendiculars.

Lionel is a decent mathematician but only writes answers and loses lots of marks as a result (he loses all of them on this sheet). Your class’ job is to help Lionel gain full credit. Topics on here involve repeated percentage change, proportion and calculating with bounds. It is designed to create mathematical discussion.

Lionel is still not offering any form of workings so your students’ job is to show Lionel how he should have presented his solution to get full marks. Topics include frequency tables, grouped frequency, set notation and probability (mutually exclusive).

So I’ve decided to use a different song for each one of these and Depeche Mode were always going to feature. There are four slides each containing four questions (one on number topics, two on geometry topics and one on data topics) of increasing difficulty where equations need to be formed to solve them but equations aren’t always used in this context.

Surds appearing in contexts such as formulae/expressions, area, equations of lines, quadratic expressions, similarity, Pythagoras, trigonometry, speed and density. Enjoy the Erasure album track too…

Erica is having a go at her constant acceleration homework but is making a few mistakes. Your students’ job is to correct the errors and explain why she made them. Useful for some discussion in class.

I got shown this by a colleague so thought I would PowerPoint it; there are essentially a few versions of the same thing: Minimally labelled etc - for a strong set of mathematicians All angles marked The side or angle you need to find next is highlighted I will use this to introduce the addition formulae. There may well be other/better versions out there so I am sorry if I have wasted your time.