YEAR 11 students at Queen’s Park High School in Chester are set for a head start to their A-level studies as online live lessons with their teachers have enabled them to continue virtual classroom style learning.

Many students in the Year 11 top set maths were devastated when their GCSE exams were cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis as they were almost ready to perform at the highest possible standard.

To cope with this frustration, Robin Johnson, teacher of mathematics at Queen’s Park High, suggested starting the study of A-level maths early through online lessons, but even he was surprised at what a response there has been.

Since the Easter holiday, A-level maths lessons have been delivered virtually to Year 11 students when they would have had their normal timetabled maths lessons.

A total of 27 students have either been 'tuning in' live to the lessons through Microsoft Teams or watching the recordings afterwards.

Students have been able to access the textbook that they require thanks to the publisher, Pearson, updating the school's subscription to their Active Learn service.

Students have already completed the first chapter on algebraic expressions, recapping some of the harder algebra from GCSE and attempted the unit test with some excellent performances, most notably Year 11 students, Beth Henderson-Palmer and Tyler Gordon.

All students are now working on the second chapter, revising the quadratic formula and completing the square, before learning about the discriminant and the language and notation of functions!

Mr Johnson said: “We are hopeful that this head start will give students the opportunity to hit the top grades at A-level in two years’ time.”