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Graham Cumming

@mathsnot.bsky.social
946 followers 668 following 896 posts

Former Maths Subject Adviser at Edexcel

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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Less than six weeks until the next compulsory GCSE resit, btw
theguardian.com
Compulsory GCSE resits in England harm teenagers’ mental wellbeing, study finds
UCL researchers warn repeated exam attempts may dent students’ confidence and raise risk of dropping out
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I’ve recently been inducted into the world of LPG suppliers - they’re the IGCSE of energy companies A bit like the more widely used alternative but totally unregulated, much more expensive and all the numbers are made up as they go along
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The “one-day ‘Investigating with Mathematics’ event” sounds like quite the innovation 🤔
thefitzwilliam.com
Ireland Could Destroy Its Secondary School Mathematics
The proposed Leaving Certificate reforms are incredibly concerning
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Ironic, I suppose, that the development of GCSE Natural History continues at a glacial pace
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
*Dusts off T-Totals*
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
“I believe that degrees in science, engineering and mathematics are amongst those that genuinely offer the greatest personal, social and economic value to our nation”
thetimes.com
Science and maths degrees offer most value to the nation, says minister
Chris McDonald told a room full of vice-chancellors that science, engineering and mathematics ‘offer the greatest personal, social and economic value’
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
With GCSE exams, you can get the questions, the performance data, the sampling data, the scoring rationale I can’t get any of that with PISA. I wait to be convinced
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Why say “the exam boards” when in this case it’s almost certainly “the AQA exam board” which is meant. Teachers are always looking for a way to discriminate between exam boards - maybe marking accuracy would be a good metric
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Have been doing the elderly parents’ financial audit today and now I’m going to lobby Lucy Powell to introduce compulsory Maths to 80
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Worth paying your 20% VAT for www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/2652201...
hamhigh.co.uk
Hampstead's new private school is treating every pupil to ice-cream in school colour
Alleyn's Hampstead will serve a specially commissioned blue gelato to every pupil during their first week of term at the new school.
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Another Norman Distribution #NormanDay
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Norman Distribution #NormanDay
Map showing concentrations of the name Norman in the UK, 2016
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
#NormanDay
Marian Fitzwalter, daughter of Norman baron Robert Fitzwalter
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Happy centenary of the Underground connecting South West London to civilisation!
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
GCSE Maths Resit - two months to prepare. Everyone who missed grade 4 by a few marks will have dropped one or two among the first five questions on each paper - but you should be aiming to answer all of those. Practise them until you can’t get them wrong
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
GCSE Mathematics: There’s quite the gap between the percentage of marks needed for a grade with AQA/Pearson and OCR/Eduqas, particularly at Foundation tier - they’re about one grade adrift. For example, 44% on F will get you a grade 4 with OCR - but that would score a Grade 2 with AQA or Edexcel 1/4
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Where to resit to get that Grade 4 in GCSE Mathematics? Results for 17-19 year olds by local authority (source: Ofqual Analytics)
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
AS qualifications again. This summer saw 106 quals, many of them duplicates, offered by four exam boards in England. 93 of those had <1000 entries and in total just under 50,000. OCR offered 38 quals for fewer than 5000 entries! They surely can’t be financially viable - they’ll be gone by 2030 1/3
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Thats enough gooey sentimentality about exam boards - I see we’re already back to the “all marking is dreadful” part of the year (usually from people who didn’t step up to be markers slagging off the efforts of those who did)
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Oh no, this old tosh has made it into The Observer now observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
observer.co.uk
Nearly 40,000 pupils forced to resit GCSE English because...
New research suggests many thousands of children could have passed the exam if their grades had been awarded by senior examiners
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
People of the A303 and beyond! Here are the entries and grade distributions for 16 year olds sitting GCSE Mathematics in the South West in 2026 by county or unitary authority Source: Ofqual Analytics
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Londoners! Here are the entries and grade distributions for 16 year olds sitting GCSE Mathematics by borough in 2026 Source: Ofqual Analytics
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Grade distributions and entry numbers by subject and exam board for all GCSE qualifications awarded by English awarding bodies in Summer 2026 (Pearson IGCSE also included for comparison, though without entry numbers)
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Pearson/Edexcel GCSE Mathematics Summer 2026 by centre type, age and sex from mathsemporium.com/1ma1-grade-b...
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Grade 9 in GCSE Mathematics gets less likely the further you are from London and the South East
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
GCSE Mathematics 2026 by centre type (England) - % of students achieving Grade 7+ and Grade 4+ Source: Ofqual Analytics
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
GCSE Mathematics 2026 grade distributions by age and sex (England) Source: JCQ
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
One for the nostalgists: GCSE Mathematics 2026 graded A*-G (This exercise fails somewhat around Higher tier grades D and E which shows, if any further evidence was needed, that Grade 4 boundaries were set way too low in 2017 and have been ever since)
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Where have the bulk of GCSE Maths entries been made this summer? Not surprisingly, with Pearson/Edexcel who now have 2/3 of the entry in England. As with A level, AQA’s entries have remained flat though OCR’s very low Foundation tier grade boundaries have helped them pick up a few extra this year
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
JCQ reports that 71.8% of 16-year old students in England achieved Grade 4 or above in GCSE Mathematics this summer - the “forgotten third”, if indeed they are forgotten, is slightly nearer to a quarter so there’s progress
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Congratulations to the ~17,000 Year 12 students who achieved Grade 4 or above in their GCSE Maths this summer, to add to the ~10,000 who did the same last November - showing there is an exit from the endless roundabout of desolation, or whatever we’re calling it this week
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
IGCSE Mathematics grade distributions 2017-2026 Pearson and CIE are both very coy about how many entries there are for UK students. For CIE it’s a few hundred but for Pearson, it’s about 40,000 - and this summer nearly a quarter of them were awarded Grade 9. I don’t use emojis often, but 🤔
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
GCSE Statistics grade distributions 2017-2026 (England)
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
GCSE Mathematics grade distributions 2017-2026 (England)
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Reposted by Graham Cumming
Schools Week @schoolsweek.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Breaking: Top grades in GCSE maths have seen a boost after grade boundaries were adjusted to reflect an improvement in 'what students know, understand and can do' schoolsweek.co.uk/gcse-results...
schoolsweek.co.uk
GCSE results day 2026: Big boost to top maths grades
Grade boundaries were adjusted to reflect a 'clear and sustained' performance boost
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
IGCSE Mathematics grade boundaries 2018-2026 (England)
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
GCSE Statistics grade boundaries 2019-2026 (England)
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
GCSE Mathematics grade boundaries 2017-2026 (England)
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Happy “oh, more maths day” to those who prematurely celebrated “no more maths day” back in June
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
IGCSE results will also be released at 8am, make sure your butler is on hand to deliver them to your charges
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Is is a treadmill of resits, or is it a conveyor belt? Or even a hamster wheel? And what happened to the demoralising roundabout? www.thetimes.com/article/9292...
thetimes.com
Lucy Powell pledges to stop GCSE resits trapping pupils in ‘failure’
On the eve of results day, the education secretary says teenagers who fail English and maths get stuck in a cycle and cannot progress to apprenticeships
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Which centres are fuelling the growth in A level Maths & Further Maths entries in England? Academies mostly, by the looks of things (source: Ofqual Analytics)
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Thursday will be the tenth summer results day where 9-1 grades will be used. Can anyone really be still wondering how they compare to the old A*-G system?
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Will AS exam soon be a a thing of the past in England? With three exam boards fighting over fewer than 50,000 entries in total (down by another 15% this year), they seem hardly worth keeping And yet - against the trend, AS Further Maths entries are up 11.3% this year and I’d be sad to see it go
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
A level Mathematics and Further Mathematics entry numbers and grade distributions by centre type for England, 2026 (source: Ofqual Analytics)
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Entries for A level Maths and Further Maths are up to record numbers again in 2026, but a lot more boys than girls having been choosing it in recent years; there’s not much in it, but the gender gap is larger than ever before. Does this matter and, if so, how is the gap narrowed again?
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
A table of all 2026 GCE A level subjects with entries and grade distributions for exam boards offering subjects in England (three images)
A table of all 2026 GCE A level subjects with entries and grade distributions for exam boards offering subjects in England (first of three imagesA table of all 2026 GCE A level subjects with entries and grade distributions for exam boards offering subjects in England (second of three images)A table of all 2026 GCE A level subjects with entries and grade distributions for exam boards offering subjects in England (third of three images
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
They don’t often get a lot of praise, so I’ll say thank you and well done to the exam boards for successfully delivering another year’s worth of Level 3 qualification results with maximum efficiency and minimum fuss @cambridgeocr.bsky.social @aqaeducation.bsky.social plus Pearson, WJEC and CCEA
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
What’s the best way to get top Maths grades at A level? Study Further Maths! It’s often mentioned that Maths gives out a lot of top grades, but strip out the Further Mathematicians and the distribution is like many other subjects (Source: Ofqual Analytics) 1/2
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Graham Cumming @mathsnot.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Nice to see A level Staristics flourishing with its biggest ever entry after AQA dumped it to save a bit of money
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