GCSE Maths Year 1 Week 6
- Sallyann Clark
- 16 hours ago
- 4 min read
Expanding & Factorising
This week takes the multiplying skills from last week and applies them to brackets. Expanding an expression by multiplying everything inside a bracket by the term outside, and then the reverse process, factorising. We'll finish by putting it all to use, forming algebraic expressions from written descriptions.
Same shape as previous weeks: warm-up, teach, practice (Foundation, Intermediate or Higher — pick one), mark, exit ticket.
This week I want you to consider trying some harder work if you feel confident enough. So if you have been completing the foundation level work, have a go at a few or just the first question on the intermediate level task. If you have been completing the intermediate level work, try the Transum task on the higher level path.
Monday — Expanding Single Brackets
What you're learning: How to expand a bracket by multiplying every term inside it by the term outside, the algebraic version of the distributive law you already use without thinking about it in ordinary arithmetic.
Warm-up (5 min): Corbett Maths — Multiplying Terms Practice, first few questions — recall of Thursday's multiplying terms, which expanding brackets depends on directly.
Teach (10 min):
Multiply the term outside the bracket by every term inside it, one at a time. Watch signs carefully; if the term outside is negative, every term inside changes sign once multiplied out.
Practice (20 min): Pick one path:
Foundation: Transum — Brackets, Levels 1–2.
Intermediate: Corbett Maths — Expanding Brackets Practice Questions, one page.
Higher: Corbett Maths — Textbook Exercise (page one) plus Transum — Brackets, Levels 3–5.
Mark & fix: Check, correct, and note why for anything you got wrong.
Exit ticket: Expand 4(2x − 3). Show the two separate multiplications before combining.
Tuesday — Expanding and Simplifying
What you're learning: How to expand more than one bracket in the same expression and then simplify the result by collecting like terms, combining two skills from the last two weeks into one process.
Warm-up (5 min): Transum — Brackets, Levels 1–2 — recall of yesterday.
Teach (10 min): Watch (re-watch if needed):
Corbett Maths — Expanding Brackets, focusing this time on the later examples with two brackets
For an expression like 3(x + 2) + 2(x − 1): expand each bracket separately first, then collect like terms across the whole expression, don't try to do both steps at once.
Practice (20 min): Pick one path:
Foundation: Transum — Brackets, Levels 3–5.
Intermediate: Transum — Brackets, Levels 6–8, one sitting.
Higher: Transum — Brackets, Levels 6–10, plus page 2 of Corbett Maths — Expanding Brackets Textbook Exercise, focusing on its later, harder questions.
Mark & fix: As before — with two brackets, the most common mistake is collecting like terms before both brackets have been fully expanded, so expand everything first.
Exit ticket: Expand and simplify 3(x + 2) + 2(x − 1). Show each stage separately.
Wednesday — Factorising into a Single Bracket
What you're learning: Factorising is the reverse of expanding, taking an expression and writing it as a term outside a bracket multiplied by whatever's left inside.
Warm-up (5 min): Corbett Maths 5-a-day (GCSE) — general mixed recall.
Teach (10 min): Watch:
To factorise, find the highest common factor of every term in the expression (this is exactly the HCF skill from Unit 1) and take it outside the bracket.
Practice (20 min): Pick one path:
Foundation: Transum — Factorising, Level 1.
Intermediate: Corbett Maths — Factorising Practice Questions, one page.
Higher: Corbett Maths — Textbook Exercise (the longer piece) plus Transum — Factorising, Level 2.
Mark & fix: As before — a good check is to expand your factorised answer back out; if you get the original expression, it's correct.
Exit ticket: Factorise 6x + 9. Check your answer by expanding it back out.
Thursday — Forming Expressions
What you're learning: How to translate a written description into an algebraic expression; turning words like "three more than double a number" into 2n + 3.
Warm-up (5 min): Transum — Factorising, Level 1 — recall of yesterday.
Teach (10 min): Watch:
Practice (20 min): Pick one path:
Foundation: Transum — Factorising, Level 2, applied alongside the first page of questions from the Corbett link below.
Intermediate: Corbett Maths — Forming Expressions Practice Questions, two pages.
Higher: Corbett Maths — Textbook Exercise (the longer piece) plus Transum — Algebraic Perimeters, which applies forming expressions to real shapes.
Mark & fix: As before.
Exit ticket: A number is doubled, then 5 is subtracted. Write this as an algebraic expression, using n for the number.
Friday — Consolidation
Today's not about new content — it's about locking in this week's ideas.
Quiz (10–15 min): Transum — Algebra hub, which includes self-marking exercises on brackets and factorising, plus the "Where am I with Algebra?" diagnostic if you'd like a broader check.
Weekend printable: MEP GCSE Pupil Text 2 — Unit 2: Formulae (PDF), 2.8 and 2.9 — good pen-and-paper reinforcement of this week's work, from a slightly different angle than the Corbett questions. Just answer what you can, its all good practice.
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: expanding single brackets, expanding and simplifying, factorising, forming expressions.
Keep this reflection — expanding and factorising are opposite processes that reinforce each other, so it's worth being honest about which direction feels shakier.
Next week: More algebra — further factorising practice and forming and solving equations, building toward the end of Unit 2.
