Elections
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can understand how members of parliament are elected.
Key learning points
- First Past the Post (FPTP) is the name for the electoral system used to elect MPs to Westminster.
- The number of MPs a party has in parliament rarely matches their popularity.
- Fewer people can vote for a party but they can win more seats.
Keywords
First Past the Post - First Past the Post (FPTP) is the name for the electoral system used to elect MPs to Westminster.
Common misconception
Winning an election means receiving over half the vote.
Under the First Past the Post system, a winning candidate must receive more votes than any other candidate. This may not mean receiving over half of the total vote.
Teacher tip
You may wish to look at the citizenship lessons that consider elections or collaborate with the citizenship department in your school if you want pupils to explore this further.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Calculate 30% of 600
Q2.Calculate 45% of 720
Q3.Calculate 121% of 923
Q4.What percentage of 356 is 89?
Q5.What percentage of 136.25 is 32.7?
Q6.Sofia says 'If I start with a number and reduce it by 100% and then increase the answer by 100% then I will get back to the number I started with.' Is she correct?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1. (FPTP) is the name for the electoral system used to elect MPs to Westminster.
Q2.The UK is divided into constituencies.
Q3.There are 400 people voting in an election. There are three candidates and voters can only vote for one of them. What is the smallest number of votes that a candidate could receive and still win?
Q4.In the FPTP system, it is possible for a candidate to be elected even though more people have voted against them, rather than for them.
Q5.Which party won the election?
Q6.What percentage (to 1 d.p.) of the total vote did Party D receive?
To help you plan your 9 maths lesson on: Elections, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 9 maths lesson on: Elections, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 maths lessons from the Thinking critically with maths unit, dive into the full secondary maths curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.