Give Lessons A Real-life Context To Let SEND Students Learn Among Their Peers
Making maths meaningful for everyone – "We've worked with a child with autism who could multiply almost any two-digit number in his head, but was unable to identify a group of two apples"
Imagine the scene. You are teaching a Y4 maths lesson about developing money skills and the learning objective is estimating in pounds and pence. The class is mixed ability and one child has an education, health and care plan (EHCP) as they have special educational needs or a disability (SEND) and are working at P scales.
The work is split three ways – higher, middle and lower – with the child with SEND working with an adult and extra resources so that they can access the lower group’s work. But how can you ensure they are learning the skills they need to access the surprisingly complex mathematical concept of money?
Assumed skills
One problem teachers currently face is that the national curriculum for maths makes the assumption that all children have mastered the early learning skills that underpin mathematical concepts they need to progress further.
Often, children with additional and special needs have not developed these assumed skills (such as understanding that a numeral not only represents a number sound but also a quantity). For example, we’ve worked with a child with autism who could multiply almost any two-digit number in his head, but was unable to identify a group of two apples.
Due to time constraints and constant emphasis on progress and attainment, teachers often find it difficult to think through the learning involved in developing maths activities for SEND learners that will push their understanding and learning forward.
The lesson we started with, estimating in pounds and pence, makes the assumption that all children have a good working knowledge of a coin, know that one coin does not equate to one pence or pound in every situation, and that more quantity does not always mean more in value terms.
These are all very challenging skills when you begin breaking down the deceptively simple subject of money.
Children with SEND will have an individual education plan (IEP) or similar that will have targets designed to meet their individual needs.
It can be a real challenge to find the time to understand how these targets can be linked into a child’s everyday learning, as opposed to being taught as discrete sessions, often individually outside the classroom with a teaching assistant. TAs are frequently asked to work with this group of children without the expertise and knowledge needed to help children understand mathematical concepts such as quantity, exchange, estimation, addition and subtraction.
In fact, maths teaching offers a great opportunity to build skills such as gross and fine motor work, communication and language through vocabulary enhancement and collaborative learning with peers.
Everyday maths
In a recent conversation with a teacher, we discussed ways for a student to continue being part of whole class teaching, and to ensure they were also developing appropriate mathematical skills.
Instead of ‘interventions’, we found as many everyday, practical opportunities as we could to work with maths in real life contexts to make the learning meaningful. Each morning the student in question did tasks such as a tally for the register, counting out pound coins for the dinner money, making sure each table had enough chairs for the amount of children, and many more.
These aren’t your typical maths lessons, but they are teaching maths skills; we call this consolidating and generalising skills, something essential for effective SEND teaching.
Consolidation activities This activity can be carried out in a small group during quiet time to support the child learning to take turns.
Thinking about the early maths skills needed to enable children with SEND to develop mathematical thinking can help you to plan creative, meaningful and collaborative lessons for SEND learners. Looking again at money and financial planning, the following ideas can be carried out alongside or with peers and support children working at P scales to learn new mathematical skills.
