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!

Lionel is a great mathematician but won’t write any workings. He keeps losing marks as a result. Can you give full solutions so that Lionel understands how he can achieve full marks?

Lionel’s pretty good at Maths but shows no workings whatsoever; this means he gets very few marks even though he gets stuff correct or partly correct. Students need to show Lionel how to write a full solution so he can maximise his marks. The whole point of this is to get students discussing the steps to a successful solution. This involves forming and solving equations, substitution and algebraic fractions amongst other things.

Lionel is still refusing to writing any workings so your students need to show him the way. He is tackling trigonometry, bearings, parallel lines and speed (measures, which I know could come under Number but…)

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).

Three slides, each with four questions of increasing difficulty that use percentages. Students are expected to use percentages situations where they wouldn’t always be found like substitution, polygons, averages and more.

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.

There are four slides, each with four questions (one involving algebra, two on geometry, one on data) of increasingly difficult questions involving ratio in contexts you would not usually see them. Topics covered include angles facts, circle theorems, trigonometry, probability and others. The song with this one is Madness album track but also the title of a film they did about how the group started…

Six questiopns where students are given the answer but have to show the workings. There are two “challenge” questions but this is designed to force students to explain what they are doing mathematically.

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.

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.

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.

Solve some quadratic inequalities, reveal a cheesy joke about fish. A simple but effective concept that always seems popular in my classroom, plus the answers are on the sheet so students know whether they are right or wrong as the answer will reveal itself. Typos corrected…

Casey is making mistakes again, this time involving difference of two square, rearranging formulae, algebraic fractions and completing the square where the coefficient of x squared is not 1 (and is negative). The aim is to get classes discussing methods and deepening understanding and is aimed at the AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate course (Chapter 2).

Six questions to do and the answers on the sheet (four answers do not match to questions). These sheets allow those students who are confident to get on without asking if answers are correct whilst the teacher helps those who need it.

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…

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.

A music joke, hence the name (a suggestion from a very keen musician that I teach). Answer the questions involving metric measures and reveal the joke; popular in both online and real-time lessons.