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The Evolution of MoodyMaths Mathematics Resources

Writer's picture: MoodyMathsMoodyMaths

Updated: Nov 1, 2024

Area under a curve question from AS Pure Mathematics Volume 2
Example from AS Pure Mathematics Volume 2

In 2016, I decided that it was time for a bit of a change! I had been teaching for just over 20 years and a family bereavement prompted me to make that change. I still loved teaching mathematics, so I started tutoring.

It was during this initial period that, as a result of tutoring much younger students that I was used to, I started writing resources. The first resources I produced were aimed at preparation for the Key Stage 2 National Assessments (SATs). I didn't want the young students that I was working with to be bombarded with past papers, so I wrote the resource in a '5-a-Day' style. I amazed myself by writing enough questions for 40 weeks!! It was the parent of one of my students who suggested that I started to tell schools about this resource. So I spent a bit of time emailing local schools, then widened this out to surrounding authorities and beyond.

At this point, the majority of my tutoring was students preparing for their GCSE examinations. So this is when I started to write the GCSE Problem Solving resources. Again, I wanted to explore the 'short, sharp' type of resource, and so I decided that each set would have three questions (one non-calculator and two calculator questions per set). I also started emailing secondary schools regarding this resource. The response was really heartening, and hearing back from schools about the different ways that they use the resource has been brilliant. I also started to post a question-a-day on Twitter, with the answers a couple of days later. This will return in the New Year, but will be posted on this blog as well.

I shied away from AS and A Level resources for a while - I really don't know why, writing them has been a really good experience. As my students progressed through their GCSEs, many of them came back for help with their AS and A Levels. This summer I finished working with a student that I had started tutoring when they were in Year 6 to when they sat their A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics examinations - it was such an amazing experience to see this student's mathematical ability develop over the course of the end of Key Stage 2 and all of Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 (and an experience that is quite a rare occurrence!!!).

So, over the course of the best part of a decade, I have written 40 weeks worth of '5-a-Day' questions for Key Stage 2 Arithmetic and Reasoning, 10 volumes of GCSE Problem Solving, 8 volumes of AS and A Level Mathematics* and 10 volume of AS and A Level Further Mathematics resources. (* at least 2 more volumes will be available before the end of 2024). There are more volumes to be written...

In my 20 years of teaching in schools, I was a head of mathematics for 11 of them. I know how tight my budget was in those years and can only imagine how much worse it is now. This is why I really do try to keep the prices of my resources as low as possible. Moving to being able to deliver them via download meant that I could reduce all of the prices last year (still got a box of USB Flash Drives though!!!) with the added bonus that they are with you as soon as the order has gone through. Anyone who has bought any MoodyMaths resources gets an additional, permanent 20% discount on the cost of all future orders - as a massive thank you for basically taking a chance on purchasing from a small, unknown business. Also, I will never use subscription or licence models. When the resource is purchased it's yours to use for all future years. The increasing use of technology in the way materials are delivered to students no longer means that the resource has to be printed out, which will, hopefully, also keep costs down to a minimum.


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