Teachers, SENCOs, Maths Leads - you are amazing and deliver in the most challenging of professions.  However, there is never enough time to do everything you want to do and it is impossible to differentiate for all the students in your classroom. The Maths For Life programme is designed for individuals with additional learning needs for whom the standard maths curriculum structure and timescale is unattainable.

None of the subject content will be new to you, as it is all contained in the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stages of the national curriculum.  However the level to which each objective is broken down into incremental, micro steps is not necessarily something you will have done before.  For most typically developing students a lot of these steps ‘just happen’ and don’t need to be implicitly taught.  This is not the case with the majority of students with additional learning needs. 

Although the Maths For Life programme was born out of a specific project to address the needs of students with Down syndrome, it has been recognised and evidenced as applicable to all individuals with additional learning needs. 

Oxfordshire County Council were impressed by the results of a parent-led Maths For Life pilot commissioned by and involving students from the Oxfordshire charity, Down’s Syndrome Oxford.  Given the effectiveness of the programme for students with Down syndrome, the Head of SEND at the council asked the question, “Will the Maths For Life programme work for all students with SEND?”.  The conclusion of the 2023/24 academic year pilot study sponsored by council was a resounding ”Yes” - 93% of students increased their overall maths attainment.  The results of the pilot provide compelling evidence of how the Maths For Life programme can benefit a wide range of students with SEND and the staff supporting them.  The pilot report, available here, details the positive impact not only on maths attainment, but also in the wider context, including independence, self-esteem and reading.

“The launch event generated much excitement countywide for what the programme might achieve and, through dedication from schools and incredible support from the Maths For Life team, the pilot has exceeded expectations.” - Nicky Ashby-Guest, Oxfordshire County Council

30% of the Oxfordshire County Council pilot population were autistic students.  The results demonstrate that autistic students improved more in overall average attainment than the overall sample population.  Staff supporting these students identified that 81% of them improved their engagement in learning maths. 

“I am the Lead teacher for Maths in our SEN school across ages 5-16. Our school is mixed SEN needs and many of our children are autistic. I also have a MEd in Autism, so maths and autism are my areas of knowledge.  I have found the Maths For Life programme to be very successful and we have been using it for a couple of years with all of our children. In my own class, I find my autistic students love the predictability of the worksheets and style of questions.  This has helped them to become more independent with their work, knowing what they need to do.” - Jana-liss Richardson, Maths Lead, Ellesmere College

The Maths For Life programme can benefit all students, with or without an additional learning need, who struggle with maths, improving their self-esteem, encouraging independence and increasing their potential to achieve gainful employment.

Via the subscription-based membership, the programme provides a series of comprehensive assessments by level, workbooks by topic, templates and other resources to offer a variety of ways to repeat the same skill - providing repetition whilst still engaging the student.  All resources are designed with a teacher and their lack of ‘spare’ time in mind. 

A topic workbook, or a set of topic workbooks, may contain upwards of 40 individual worksheets that start with the ‘easier’ objectives within that topic, slowly building the difficulty until all objectives are secured.  They are colourful and engaging pdfs files that can be viewed on a computer / interactive board or printed in colour or black and white.  Most workbooks have also got an ‘Eco Ink’ version available to keep printing costs down. 

The workbooks also contain a diverse set of named characters that are age neutral - meaning that Zoe and Raya could be 6, 16 or 26 years old - allowing them to be accessed by older students without them feeling ‘babyish’. We carefully consider the ideas and themes in our workbooks to capture the attention of our audience, no matter what their age or interests might be.

The Maths For Life programme focuses on securing understanding and functional application of a skill on an incremental and independent basis before moving to the next level. Progress is individual with no associated timescales.

The Record of Progress charts are used to assess baseline and progress. Each line relates to a topic and assesses if the student is trying, sometimes getting it, mostly getting it or secured in the objective. As the topic level is so much more incremental than the lines in the national curriculum, it allows you to demonstrate progress of a student from term to term, year to year and support a hand over from teaching staff at year end.

In a mainstream setting, this programme supports inclusion whilst providing a differentiated curriculum. Within a special school environment it will cater to the individual needs of many students.

The Maths For Life programme is supported by a community who share ideas, welcome feedback and strive to improve attainment levels in maths for everyone. To understand more, visit the Frequently Asked Questions section of the website or join one of our regular Q&A session via Zoom. These are group sessions that are open to parents, teachers, teaching assistants, SENCOs, Maths Lead, SLT, Educational professionals and anyone else who would like to find out more about the programme or ask a specific question related to ongoing use of the programme. You can check availability and book onto a session here. You can also request a brochure.