GCSE Statistics

Department Staffing & Roles

Claire Cowen (Teacher of Mathematics)

The Statistics course at Ormiston Chadwick Academy is offered to all students to take as one of their GCSE options for Year 10 and 11. This course was introduced in 2022 to expand the mathematical offer for students with a passion for the subject. We intend to enhance a love of mathematics in our students by providing a curriculum that is designed to assess and build on prior knowledge to equip pupils with the statistical thinking skills they may require in their future.

Students study the Edexcel GCSE course, beginning in Year 10 and continuing into Year 11. There are two tiers, Foundation (Grade 1 – Grade 5) and Higher (Grade 3 – Grade 9).

Students will cover the content as detailed in the Edexcel Scheme of Work and will experience topic areas under the subject content headings of:

  • Collection of data
  • Processing and representing data
  • Summarising data
  • Scatter diagrams and correlation
  • Time series
  • Probability
  • Index numbers
  • Probability distributions

gcse-9-1-statistics-specification.pdf (pearson.com)

At OCA, we strongly believe that careers education is a vital aspect of our curriculum. In Statistics, we aim to broaden our pupils’ idea of the opportunities available to them post-16. In order to do this, we include careers links in each lesson; through discussions and tasks showing how different careers use statistics.


We are currently in contact with employers/companies to provide some exciting opportunities for students to experience how statistics links to different jobs and careers. One example of this is our continued work with links with Liverpool University, including class seminars linking to post-16 choices with Statistics.

All destinations when leaving secondary school will require skills in numeracy and statistical thinking and this course has a wide range cross-curricular links, for example Geography and Child Development.  Students who are passionate about mathematics and wish to continue with this subject further will benefit highly from completing the Statistics course at GCSE, and it will set them up for great success in the subject.

Further Education Opportunities

Locally, we have excellent post-16 provisions for studying mathematics at A-Level, inclusive of units on Statistics. Below are some links for further study options for mathematics:

Further Maths

‘Further Maths’ will be an opportunity for high achieving Year 11s to delve deeper into the world of mathematics. This enrichment activity will teach the AQA Level 2 Further Maths course with the end goal of an additional GCSE qualification. Students that have a passion for mathematics and an aspiration to continue their mathematical studies after leaving OCA will get a taster of higher-level mathematics with links to A-Level maths and further maths within these sessions.

Online revision resources

Maths Genie gives a platform for students to access past exam questions and other useful revision resources for many GCSE Statistics topics.

The BBC’s Bitesize website has a section on statistics in its maths revision guide. It has some useful notes, activities and tests that you can use to review the ideas you have covered in class and prepare for your exams. The BBC also produces a radio programme, More or Less, about current events revolving around statistics. It explores the truth of the figures that we hear on the news. It highlights the reasons some of the numbers might not mean exactly what the newspapers tell us they do.

This programme is an interesting way to learn how the techniques you are studying in class are applied in the real world. It will also help you to think numerically. The programme is broadcast on Radio 4 but you can also listen to episodes online or download them to listen to later. The website also has links to articles covering some of the stories and to the presenter’s Twitter account.

Revision World also has a section covering the most important statistical ideas. It is another good resource for revision. It includes videos alongside written notes. This resource would be a good choice if you are a visual or auditory learner.

Revision Guides

If you decide to purchase your own revision guides, workbooks and flashcards, ensure that they cover the Edexcel Specification which is the exam board we are currently studying.

Calculator

Both of the exams taken for GCSE Statistics allow the use of a calculator, therefore we recommend that your child gets their own scientific calculator for use during lessons and examinations. The Casio fx-83GTX/fx-85GTX can be purchased from most supermarkets. This will enable them to feel more confident when using a calculator and be familiar with their particular model, as different models will vary.