Intent

For Entry Level Certificate (ELC) Mathematics at Edith Kay School, we follow the AQA specification. This qualification is helpful for our students to prepare for GCSE. The component-based structure of the qualification provides our students with the opportunity to work in short programmes. There are eight components:

• 3.1 Component 1: properties of number
• 3.2 Component 2: the four operations (calculator not allowed)
• 3.3 Component 3: ratio
• 3.4 Component 4: money
• 3.5 Component 5: the calendar and time
• 3.6 Component 6: measures
• 3.7 Component 7: geometry
• 3.8 Component 8: statistics

This qualification is linear, where students submit all the eight components that form the assessment at the end of this course.

Implementation

At Edith Kay School ELC lessons are interactive, challenging and fun – with all students fully engaged. There are plenty of maths resources available for our students to help picture abstract maths concepts in the real world, including:

• Play money
• Abacus for counting and number sense
• Spheres, prisms and other shapes for geometry
• Base ten building blocks, number lines and clocks
• Small objects like gummy bears, buttons or rocks for pattern making. Flashcards for subtraction, addition, multiplication and division facts or other maths vocabulary terms.

Impact

Each student will complete a portfolio containing all of the eight components of work made up of between four and eight external assignments. Any remaining components will be made up of internally set classwork. 

All components are internally assessed by the teacher and then moderated by AQA. Each component is marked out of 30, giving a total mark out of 240 for the whole portfolio. The outcomes are awarded from level 1 to level 3.