the Department for Education to examine all learning from Key Stages 1 to 4. In particular, topics listed in Key Stage 3 explicitly form part of the curriculum for Key Stage 4 (such that the foundations of earlier learning are reinforced whilst building upon them). Accordingly, students who have struggled with the harder-to-understand elements in the past are given the opportunity to master the Key Stage 3 content whilst others build higher, in parallel. English Secondary Schools: GCSEs [typically age 15/16+] It is mandatory in England for students to have taken a GCSE in mathematics by the year of their sixteenth birthday. It is notable that the subject content agreed between the Department of Education and The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) [the exam board regulator for GCSEs, AS-Levels and A-Levels] is highlighted in subtly different ways to the subject content of the national curriculum for Key Stage 4. The latter features two levels of expectation (plain text versus {bold and 'braces'}); the former features three (plain text, underlined text and bold text). The subtly of the distinction enabled more perceptive students, parents and educators to determine (or speculate about) the way in which content is (or should be) distributed between the two different sets of GCSE mathematics examinations (Foundation and Higher): these two sets overlap (suggesting the underlined topics exist in the intersection between the two sets of topics). It is also notable that the curriculum for GCSE is intended by the Department for Education to examine all learning from Key Stages 1 to 4. In particular, topics listed in Key Stage 3 explicitly form part of the curriculum for Key Stage 4 and the GCSE (such that the foundations of earlier learning are reinforced whilst building upon them). Accordingly, students who have struggled with the harder-to-understand elements in the past are given the opportunity to master the Key Stage 3 content whilst others build higher, in parallel. English Secondary Schools: AS and A-Levels [typically age 17+] AS and A-Levels in mathematics are not mandatory. Accordingly, there is no national curriculum for AS and A-Level mathematics in England. However, there is agreed subject content required by the Department for Education for AS and A level specifications in mathematics. Elements The key parts of a "scheme of work" may include: Example of a simple scheme of work See also Lesson Plans. References Schemes of Work Pedagogy Teaching