GCSE Maths Year 1 Week 1
- Sallyann Clark
- 9 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Week 1: Place Value, the Four Operations & Negative Numbers
Welcome to Week 1 of your GCSE Maths course! Over the next two years we're going to build up your maths from the ground up, all the way to full GCSE standard, and this week we start right at the foundations: place value, adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing, and negative numbers.
Nothing this week should feel scary. If anything feels too easy, go faster, the goal is confidence, not just getting through it. If anything feels shaky, that's exactly the point of doing it now, properly, before it becomes a problem in six months. Just slow down and take a bit longer to complete the work.
Each day should take about 45 minutes. Here's the shape every day will follow:
Warm-up (5 min) — a quick recall game or quiz
Teach (10 min) — watch a short video, take brief notes
Practice (20 min) — work through questions, easy → hard
Mark (7 min) — check your answers, fix any mistakes
Exit ticket (3 min) — one honest question: could I teach this to someone else?
These are only very rough timings; some tasks will take longer, others will take less time. If you complete the foundation level activity (F) maybe you will want to have a go at the intermediate (I) or higher (H) level activities.
Grab a notebook for this course; you'll want somewhere to keep worked examples and jot down anything you want to come back to.
Monday — Place Value & Ordering Numbers
What you're learning: How our number system works, why the position of a digit changes its value, and how to put numbers (including decimals) in order.
Warm-up (5 min): Try this quick game: Wordwall — Place Value games
Teach (10 min): Watch: Corbett Maths — Place Value
Write the title place value at the top of your page and as you watch, jot down: what does each digit in the number 4,752.36 actually represent?
Practice (20-40 min):
You don't need to do all of the resources below, that's too much for 20 minutes. Pick one path based on how the warm-up game felt:
Foundation(if place value still feels shaky): Transum — Place Value, Levels 1–2 only. Short, self-marking, immediate feedback, good for building confidence before anything longer.
Intermediate (if the warm-up felt fine): Corbett Maths — Place Value Practice Questions. Do the full page, it's a single, appropriately-sized set, not a huge worksheet.
Higher (if this all feels easy): Corbett Maths — Textbook Exercise (PDF), questions from the later exercises only, plus Transum — Place Value up to Level 4–5 for a proper stretch.
Work through easy questions first, then push into the harder ones at the bottom.
Mark & fix: Answers are included on the practice pages above. For anything you got wrong, don't just note the right answer, figure out why you went wrong, and write a one-line note to yourself about it.
Exit ticket: Could you explain to someone else why 0.4 is bigger than 0.25?
Write your explanation in one sentence.
Tuesday — Adding & Subtracting (including decimals)
What you're learning: Solid, fast methods for adding and subtracting whole numbers and decimals, the kind of arithmetic you'll lean on constantly for the next two years.
Warm-up (5 min): Corbett Maths 5-a-day (GCSE) — just do today's set, don't worry about getting everything right. Pick the level right for you, most of you will pick the foundation or higher level.
Teach (10 min): Watch:
Practice (20 min):
Pick one path:
Foundation (adding/subtracting decimals still feels wobbly): Transum — Arithmetic hub — do the Basic Addition and Basic Subtraction exercises. These build up through levels, so stop wherever it starts feeling like real effort.
Intermediate: Corbett Maths — Adding Decimals Practice Questions, the full page.
Higher: Khan Academy — Add and subtract decimals (work through the lessons on adding/subtracting tenths, hundredths, and mixed decimal places, then take the unit quiz at the end) plus Transum — Column Method for a speed challenge once the method is solid.
Stop at 20 minutes regardless of which path you're on if you need a break. Feel free to work longer if you are wanting to complete your path.
Mark & fix: Same as yesterday — check, correct, note why.
Exit ticket: Without a calculator, what's £13.60 − £4.85? Write out your full working, not just the answer.
Wednesday — Multiplying & Dividing (including decimals)
What you're learning: Reliable written methods for multiplication and division, column method, short division, plus how decimals behave when you multiply and divide.
Warm-up (5 min): Topmarks — Hit the Button (pick the times tables/division mode)
Teach (10 min): Watch:
Practice (20 min):
Pick one path:
Foundation: Transum — Arithmetic hub — Basic Multiplication and Short Division exercises (these have the calculation set out for you, which is a gentler way in).
Intermediate: Corbett Maths — Multiplication Practice Questions, the full page.
Higher: Corbett Maths — Multiplying/Dividing by Decimals Practice plus Transum — Long Division for a proper stretch.
Mark & fix: As before.
Exit ticket: A pack of 8 pens costs £3.60. What does one pen cost? Show your division working.
Thursday — Negative Numbers (all four operations)
What you're learning: How to add, subtract, multiply and divide with negative numbers — a topic that trips a lot of people up not because it's hard, but because the rules feel unintuitive until they click.
Warm-up (5 min): Corbett Maths 5-a-day (GCSE)
Teach (10 min): Watch:
A quick rule of thumb worth memorising:
Same signs → answer is positive (e.g. −3 × −4 = 12, or −8 ÷ −2 = 4)
Different signs → answer is negative (e.g. −3 × 4 = −12, or 8 ÷ −2 = −4)
Practice (20 min):
Pick one path:
Foundation: Transum — Negative Numbers activities — start with the simpler ordering and real-life temperature activities before touching pure calculation.
Intermediate: Corbett Maths — Arithmetic with Negatives Practice, the full page.
Higher: Khan Academy — Add & Subtract Negatives plus Transum — Bidmaze, Level 2 (mixes in negatives with the four operations).
Negative numbers are exactly the kind of topic where a small sign error compounds, so whichever path you're on, prioritise checking your working over racing through more questions.
Mark & fix: As before — negative numbers are exactly the kind of topic where a small sign error compounds, so be extra careful checking these.
Exit ticket: The temperature is −4°C. It drops by 7 degrees. What's the new temperature? Write the calculation, not just the answer.
Friday — Consolidation
Today's not about new content, it's about locking in everything from this week.
Quiz (10–15 min): Maths Playground Galaxy Pals (covers negative numbers)
If you'd rather do a proper mixed self-marking test of the whole week, Transum's Negative Numbers quiz has a "Test your understanding of negative numbers... about temperatures" activity that's a nice real-world mix of everything from this week.
Weekend printable : MEP Year 7 Practice Book — Unit 2: Place Value & Rounding (PDF)
This is a proper pen-and-paper practice booklet, good for building the kind of fluency that only comes from writing things out by hand, and a nice contrast to a screen-based week.
End-of-week reflection (5 min): In your notebook, answer:
Which topic this week felt most solid?
Which topic do you want to see again before we move on?
Rate your confidence 1–5 on: place value, adding/subtracting, multiplying/dividing, negative numbers.
Keep this reflection, we'll circle back to anything you flagged as shaky in a mixed-review session at the end of Unit 1 (Week 4), so nothing gets forgotten.
Next week: Factors, multiples, primes, and finding the HCF and LCM of numbers, building directly on the arithmetic fluency you've just built.
