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 children 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. 

The programme offers a differentiated approach to the maths curriculum that lays down solid foundations, is framed in practical understanding, and delivers the essential maths needed for life.  It delivers a clear path, ability to review progress and measure attainment. 

Hopefully the ideas for teaching and known challenges faced by students with additional learning needs will be a support to you.  And, as a student progresses through the programme, the Record of Progress will enable you to understand and demonstrate exactly where they are in their maths learning and form part of their academic record and annual review.

And, via the subscription based membership, the programme provides a series of comprehensive 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.  During term time there is a Weekly General Workbook published for all levels containing 10 general / across topic questions. All resources are designed with saving time and effort in mind. 

A topic workbook may contain upwards of 40 individual worksheets that start with ‘easy to try’ and work through all options to ‘secured’ in that topic. They are colourful and engaging pdfs 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 Milly could be 6, 16 or 26 years old - allowing them to be accessed by older students without them feeling ‘babyish’. 

Content is varied and caters for a wide ranging audience.

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.