What is Maths For Life and how does it differ from other schemes of work?

The Maths For Life programme opens the world of maths to a range of learners for whom the national curriculum timescale and structure just doesn’t work. It provides instant support to educators and helps those with learning difficulties develop the essential maths they need for life; improving their self-esteem, encouraging independence and increasing their potential to achieve gainful employment as an adult.

Who is the programme designed for?

The Maths For Life programme can be implemented at school, college or at home. The age neutral approach to content means that it is accessible to all students from infants to adults. It is currently in use at both mainstream and specialist settings at all educational levels - preschool, primary, secondary, and further education college.

The differentiated approach is designed for students for whom the standard maths national curriculum structure and timescale is unattainable.  It can be followed at school, college or in a home teaching environment and supports the seamless interaction between both settings.

How is progress assessed?

The Maths For Life programme is a dynamic programme that is constantly developing to meet the needs of our expanding customer base. We have been working behind the scenes on a new ‘self service’ assessment process. It takes the concept of the baseline assessment to find out what a student truly knows and adds on a way of being able to analyse the results and generate targets. It is designed to be completed by teaching assistants / teachers / SENCOs / parents without the need for any specialist training. Multiple assessments at each level will be developed to enable progress over time to be monitored and recorded. 

How does the programme work?

It is a bespoke programme designed for easy, efficient, and independent use without the need for expensive training.  It includes textbooks for the educator, student practice books, a comprehensive online resource library housing thousands of electronic worksheets accessible by any digital platform, supporting maths aids, tutorial videos, a community forum, access to assessments, and progress tracking reports.

How much does it cost?

Please find below a list of the current costs associated with the Maths For Life programme.

What research or evidence is there to prove that the programme works?

Starting in February 2021, we collaborated with the Down's Syndrome Oxford charity group to run a year-long pilot to assess the impact of a parent-led Maths For Life programme on students ranging from age 4 to 18, attending both mainstream and specialist education settings.  Read more about the Research to Date here.

The pilot has now been extended and expanded to an ongoing programme supporting more students and schools.  Out of the 23 students who completed the programme, 100% demonstrated an improvement in overall mathematical attainment and increased independence.  Some of them even love maths for the first time in their lives!

"These are the results from a parent-led programme; what would they be like if schools came on board too?" - Jos Smith, Chair of Down's Syndrome Oxford

This is now happening.  There is a large scale pilot happening with Oxfordshire County Council across 50 schools and involving over 300 students.  Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we are now working with and recommended by several councils including Barnet, Hackney, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Cumbra and Cheshire.

Maths For Life Book Reviews in SEN and nasen Connect magazines.

Can my child get a GCSE Maths using this programme?

Maths is a subject that needs solid foundations to build upon and the GCSE maths content is like a complex skyscraper on top. The content challenges the majority of typically developing children and is unattainable for children with additional learning needs in the time scale given. If more time is spent building the foundations for a solid functional house - the maths needed for life - there is a better chance of a successful build.  And, if an individual continues to enjoy maths, then there is no reason to stop learning and maybe a GCSE maths is attainable at some point during adulthood.

Is there an alternative qualification to GCSE Maths?

Yes, in the UK there are a group of qualifications called Functional Skills. The Dearing Review of qualifications for 16-19 year olds (1996) and the Moser Report (1999) Improving literacy and numeracy were the catalysts for the development of the Skills for Life Strategy and the introduction of Functional Skills qualifications in 2011.  Their premise was to tackle basic literacy and numeracy problems among the adult population and their goal was to prepare learners to apply effectively their maths and English skills for the purpose of their career and employment. As well as being a free-standing qualification, Functional Skills qualifications are now widely used in schools, apprenticeships and adult education.  They represent about 7% of all regulated qualifications taken in England and, other than GCSEs, this is the highest volume qualification type that Ofqual regulates.

Functional skills qualifications in English, maths and ICT are currently available.  There are five levels for each subject Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3, level 1 and level 2. A Functional Skills level 2 qualification is at the same level as a grade 4 or C and above at GCSE.

The Maths For Life Level 1 is the equivalent of the government set Functional Skills Entry Level 1 content and Maths For Life Level 2, 3 and 4 combine to be equivalent of Entry Level 2. Maths For Life Level 5 will cover all the remaining content for Entry Level 3 with additional financial education.

Questions on Down syndrome and Maths

Why is it important for someone with DS to learn maths?

Children and adults with Down syndrome need to understand maths to be able to live an independent life. They need to be able to deal with money, time, weights and measures and do simple calculations. Technology today can support them, like the rest of us, but a calculator is only useful if you know how to use it and can gauge if the answer it gives is sensible.

What are the key challenges?

The way maths is traditionally taught in schools weighs heavily on the use of memory… short term, long term and working memory. We know that Down syndrome is typically associated with a poor short term memory and therefore we need to adapt and develop new ways to teach our children to compensate for this. We know that visual memory is a strength and it is essential that we capitalise on this and use visual maths aids to support learning.

We know that our children are achieving more and more and, with today’s early intervention, they have the potential to keep pushing the boundaries. And as The Maths Mum® I have a professional and personal reason to help this to happen.

When should I start teaching maths to my child?

From birth! Honestly, maths should be an integrated part of life from the beginning. From the singing of nursery rhymes such as “One, two, three, four, five… once I caught a fish alive” to counting fingers and toes, from the learning ‘more’ as your first Makaton sign to understanding more and less. Mathematical words like big, small, slow, fast, tall, short as well as colours and shapes all form part of the pre-number skills needed in maths. It is never too young to start introducing these words and concepts… Would you like the big car or the small car? Which one is the red block? Modelling with things that you find in the toy box and around the house. Maths is based on the ability to be able to tell what is ‘the same’ and what is ‘different’ so it is always useful to point out things that are the same and things that are different starting with obvious differences such as colour and size but then looking at more subtle differences like spotty socks versus stripy socks.

What are some of the key maths milestones?

As a mum of a child with DS I understand that ‘milestones’ can cause much anxiety. Just like with gross motor, fine motor and speech milestones, your child is an individual and will be on their own development path. Within education, some children will flourish and some will be challenged, some children will love to read and others will be happier with maths concepts.

Key maths milestones include:

• Being able to tell if things are the same or different

• Being able to classify objects by colour, shape, size or type of item

• Counting

• Understanding one-to-one correspondence

• Cardinality - understanding that the last number counted is the total number… how many?

• Recognising numbers / numerals

• Understanding place value

• Simple addition and subtraction

There are many more milestones and within each of these milestones there are lots of ‘mini’ milestones. The key is to understand that maths is learnt by building concept on concept and therefore it is important to have solid foundations even if it takes years!

It is also important that other maths concepts such as size, shape, direction & position, time, money and measurements are introduced in practical scenarios that give children situational understanding. I always like to think of it as “what’s in it for them?” - if you can find a reason why understanding it will benefit them, then they will be more motivated to understand it. For example, ‘would you like a big or small ice cream?’ or ‘would you like to spend your £10 on one Paw Patrol figure or three LEGO mini figures?’.

Don’t shy away from maths - embrace it. Make it part of your everyday routine. The more familiar and comfortable our children are with numbers the more willing they will be to give harder concepts a go.

Should a child with DS follow the national curriculum like their peers?

All children are different and will have academic strengths and weaknesses. The speed at which they attain the maths milestones will dictate whether they can follow the national curriculum like their peers. Mainstreams schools typically follow a ‘scheme of work’ which the teacher uses to design the weekly and termly topics and learning. Examples of schemes include Mathematics Mastery, Maths No Problem, Power Maths, Shanghai Maths, White Rose Maths. Most of them use the idea that you cover a topic, leave it, come back to it the next term and review it and then come back to it again in the final term of the year and ensure the learning is consolidated and secured. That might mean that one topic is covered for a week each term.

The learning profile of a child with DS suggests that they benefit from repetition and therefore this method might not produce the best results. We know that, if we haven’t successfully transitioned the learning to long term recall and complete understanding, when we return to the topic we will be starting again from scratch. It is therefore important that we support children with DS with a differentiated curriculum to secure the building blocks via repetition whilst still providing variety so as to avoid boredom. And it is important to concentrate on the core milestones before advancing to more complex maths - it is important to secure simple addition and subtraction before introducing multiplication and division.

There are also topics within the national curriculum that will not necessarily be needed for ‘life’ - for example, memorising how many faces, vertices and edges a 3D shape. This is part of the KS1 curriculum and will take up important long term memory space however it is not needed in everyday life.

I have a child with Down syndrome, do I have to choose between differentiation and inclusion?

Although more parents are choosing mainstream education for children with Down syndrome, there has been a recent drop in children moving into mainstream secondary school.  Specialist secondary schools can provide a more tailored curriculum targeted towards skills for life.  Does this mean we have to choose between inclusion and differentiation?  No, inclusion can be more successful with improved differentiation.  There is a need to cater to a wider range of ability within the national curriculum and offer different pathways that allow children to succeed.  Maths is definitely a subject that needs to be differentiated.  Children with additional learning needs would be more successful if they focus on the skills they need, the foundations first and then the building blocks, and not attempt the full breadth of the curriculum before they are ready.  Teachers, teaching assistants and parents need to understand the maths development milestones at a step by step level and ensure that a child has secured all the prior knowledge before attempting the next level.  Or indeed understand what needs to be worked on in parallel for a successful outcome. 

What is Numicon?

Numicon is a visual and sensory maths aid that was developed to help children with special educational needs access maths concepts with images and concrete objects.

Although it was born out of SEN need, it has quickly been adopted by the mainstream and can be found in most infant classrooms today.

It is one of many maths aids children use today. It is not designed to be used in isolation but as a support to learning.

Children with DS like it because is it is colourful, it has holes to stick your fingers through and it makes a brilliant noise when banged together or dropped on the ground!