The government initially seemed keen to make a success of Core Maths. They put some very good people onto promoting and supporting it (David Burghes, Mick Blaylock, Paul Glaister, the CMSP group) and seemed to have nurtured this new course well.
Then it became clear that many sixth forms would not be able to run Core Maths because it isn't funded in the same way as A-levels and they would not be able to afford to teach it.
Let's take the case of Core Maths. One period per week across a whole year costs a school about £2000. If a Core Maths class has 3 lessons per week over two years then that will be 3 x 2 x £2000 = £12,000.
Now let's divide that by the £600 per extra pupil taking the qualification:
£12,000 / £600 = 20.
So, a class of 20 extra students doing Core Maths will fund itself.
In the case of Core Maths then, this essentially sorts out the funding required to run the qualification.
And working this out could form the basis of a Core Maths lesson!
