At Talbot Specialist School, we believe that our students have the right to inclusive, awe-inspiring and high-quality maths lessons that ensure they achieve in maths at their own pace and in their own individual way. We intend for our students to come through the doors excited and inquisitive about the maths learning ahead, as well as out of the doors, at the end of the day, feeling excited and inspired by the learning that they have experienced. As a school, we are committed to designing and delivering a maths mastery curriculum that is founded on real-life, functional maths that immerses our students into the core mathematical concepts of number, geometry and measures. We aim to equip our students with the knowledge, skills and experiences to prepare them for life beyond Talbot whilst promoting independence. We bring maths to life through practical maths lessons, where possible, linking the maths with topics acting as a hook into learning, as well as capturing imagination and intrigue into maths. Our maths lessons are tailored to each individual student, ensuring small steps of learning are being embedded and ‘mathematical moments’ are evident across the school.
We aim for our students to:
At Talbot Specialist School, the intention is that maths is tailored to each individual student in our school, allowing them to make progress at their own pace and in their own way. Maths lessons will look different throughout the pathways, but the intention for all our pupils to flourish in maths will be consistent. Teachers will follow the aspirational and engaging whole-school curriculum that provides opportunity to revisit and embed core mathematical concepts. We have a whole-school maths rota to ensure coverage of the core mathematical concepts, allowing for revisitation and opportunity for students to progress to the next steps of learning in each area or embed their understanding. We adopt a maths mastery approach in our school, and our steps to learning are concrete, pictorial and abstract. Students’ experiences in maths differ depending on their needs, we are whole-heartedly inclusive in our maths offer.
Pathway 1: | Pathway 1 will follow a sensory cross-curriculum which will be linked with other topics. Maths learning will be ‘Mathematical Moments’ and exposure to maths concepts will be in a sensory way through experiences and real-life, concrete resources – linking with the Maths Curriculum Document. |
Pathway 2: | Pathway 2 will base their planning on the focus rota, using the Maths Curriculum Document to identify pupil-specific small steps of learning to work on in lessons, functional maths activity ideas and concrete resource opportunities. Learning will be practical, repetitive and founded on the use of concrete apparatus to adopt a mastery approach whilst linking with topics. |
Pathway 3: | Upper Pathway 2 & Pathway 3 will base their planning on the focus rota, using the Maths Curriculum Document to identify pupil-specific small steps of learning to work on in lessons. Maths lessons will be linked with the White Rose Maths Curriculum to adopt a concrete, pictorial and abstract approach to the delivery of maths lesson, ensuring a maths mastery approach. Functional Skills Entry Level coverage will be used where appropriate. |
At Talbot Specialist School, we have high aspirations for all our pupils. Progress in maths is based on the security of students’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next step of the learning journey. Students who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through rich problems either with or without adult support before progressing on to new content. Students at Talbot have a wide range of experiences to explore and consolidate mathematical concepts.
Students use a wide range of concrete resources to support their learning such as hundred squares, number lines, Numicon, cubes, real-life objects and other apparatus. As well as visual supports, such as the bar model, part-part whole and tens frames. Most importantly, students regularly use real-life concrete apparatus to make maths learning real-life, and relevant to their daily lives.
Our students have a love of learning in maths and make steps of progression regardless of their starting point. Maths achievements are celebrated and there is a culture of joy towards maths in our school.
Real-life learning in maths is key to our students developing functional maths skills that they can use in everyday life beyond Talbot. Any experiences/practice with money (at the shop), measures (when cooking, making a drink etc), recognising different shapes when out and about would be fantastic for our students.
The following free booklets can also be used to support your young person at home if you wish.
Parent resources | Maths workbooks | White Rose Maths