Maths

Provision and/or strategies: approaches, adjustments and specific interventions expected to be made by settings according to the ages and stages of the CYP

Universal

• Ensure staff understand that early mathematical development is rooted in play, exploration and real-life experiences.
• Ensure staff understand that mathematical development involves acquiring skills, conceptual understanding and factual knowledge across key areas, including number and quantity, operations, geometry (shape and space) and measure.
• Ensure staff understand that mathematical development involves forming connections between concepts (e.g. inverse relationships such as addition and subtraction) and developing reasoning skills, including logical thinking and the ability to explain and justify ideas.
• Ensure staff understand that mathematical development is influenced by a range of wider factors, including:
  • Executive functions (e.g. working memory, self-regulation, metacognition)
  • Language and communication skills
  • Motor and visuo-spatial skills
  • Prior experiences with mathematical activities and resources
  • Learners' interests, motivation and attitudes towards mathematics
• Ensure staff understand that maths anxiety can negatively affect learning by increasing cognitive load, reducing problem-solving efficiency and contributing to avoidance behaviours that limit practice and progress.
• Ensure high-quality mathematics teaching supports the development of conceptual understanding, fluency, reasoning and problem-solving through explicit instruction, carefully sequenced learning and responsive teaching informed by assessment.
• Ensure that staff:
  • Understand progression in mathematical learning and the knowledge required for next steps
  • Identify developmental pre-requisites for new concepts and skills
  • Assess learners' understanding and respond appropriately
  • Build on prior knowledge and experiences
  • Adapt teaching responsively, including the use of scaffolding and the reduction of cognitive load where needed
  • Provide appropriate levels of challenge and support
•  Break learning into small, sequential steps to support understanding and reduce cognitive load.
• Use a structured approach to teaching mathematical concepts, moving from concrete experiences to pictorial representations and then abstract symbols (CPA approach), as appropriate to developmental stage.
• Use carefully designed examples and variation to highlight key mathematical structures and relationships.
• Provide explicit modelling and worked examples to demonstrate methods and problem-solving processes.
• Provide a range of concrete and visual resources and explicitly teach learners how to use them.
• Use visual representations (e.g. number lines, diagrams, structured layouts) to support understanding.
• Explicitly teach and reinforce mathematical vocabulary and language.
• Provide structured opportunities for mathematical talk, discussion and explanation (e.g. partner talk, sentence stems).
• Teach learners how to explain and justify their reasoning using appropriate mathematical language.
• Provide regular opportunities to develop fluency and automaticity through guided practice, repetition and retrieval practice.
• Identify and address misconceptions through responsive teaching and discussion, using errors as opportunities to deepen understanding.
• Teach learners strategies to approach, plan, monitor and evaluate their problem-solving (metacognition).
• Gradually reduce scaffolding to support independence in mathematical thinking and application.
• Support learners to apply mathematical skills across a range of contexts, including real-life and functional situations (e.g. money, time, measurement, data), to promote generalisation and independence.
• Use meaningful and engaging contexts to promote positive attitudes and reduce maths anxiety.
• Use ICT and digital tools to support, practise and consolidate mathematical learning where appropriate.
• Further information about effective mathematics teaching can be found below:
  • Improving Mathematics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1 | EEF
  • Improving Mathematics in Key Stages 2 and 3 | EEF
  • Early Childhood Maths Group

Targeted

• Identify specific mathematical barriers (e.g. number sense, fluency, language, reasoning, working memory, visuo-spatial skills) using ongoing assessment to inform targeted intervention.
• Recognise the impact of wider factors such as executive function difficulties, language needs and maths anxiety, and adapt intervention accordingly.
• Deliver targeted intervention through small-group or 1:1 support where appropriate.
• Use explicit, structured instruction with clear modelling, guided practice and opportunities for independent application.
• Use frequent, in-the-moment assessment and checking for understanding to adapt teaching and address misconceptions quickly.
• Break learning into small, carefully sequenced steps to reduce cognitive load.
• Use a structured approach to developing understanding (e.g. concrete → pictorial → abstract), matched to developmental stage and need.
• Use carefully designed examples and variation to highlight key mathematical structures and relationships.
• Provide targeted support to develop number sense (e.g. understanding quantity, subitising, number relationships and magnitude), particularly where foundational gaps are present.
• Use pre-teaching of key concepts, vocabulary and representations to prepare learners for new learning.
• Explicitly teach and reinforce mathematical vocabulary, adapting language to support understanding.
• Provide and explicitly teach the use of concrete and visual resources (e.g. manipulatives, number lines, diagrams).
• Use clear, consistent layouts and structured recording formats to support organisation and reduce cognitive load.
• Provide structured opportunities for mathematical talk (e.g. sentence stems, partner discussion) to support reasoning and explanation.
• Identify and address misconceptions through targeted teaching and discussion, using errors to deepen understanding.
• Provide additional opportunities for guided practice, repetition and retrieval to support fluency and automaticity.
• Use structured approaches (e.g. precision teaching, short daily practice) to build rapid recall of key facts and skills.
• Provide overlearning opportunities to secure and maintain key knowledge beyond initial success.
• Teach problem-solving and metacognitive strategies (e.g. planning, monitoring and checking approaches).
• Provide structured scaffolds (e.g. worked examples, prompts, visual supports) and gradually reduce support to promote independence.
• Adapt tasks to reduce cognitive load where needed (e.g. simplifying language, reducing steps, providing partial solutions or visual prompts).
• Allow additional processing time and adjust pace to support accuracy and confidence.
• Support learners to apply mathematical skills across a range of contexts, including real-life and functional situations (e.g. money, time, measurement, data, travel or workplace scenarios).
• Provide opportunities to practise skills in real or simulated real-life environments to support generalisation and independence.
• Use supportive approaches to reduce anxiety (e.g. low-stakes practice, gradual increase in challenge, reassurance).
• Use targeted ICT and assistive tools (e.g. apps, calculators, visual supports) to reinforce learning and promote independent access.
• Further information about maths interventions and supporting CYP with maths challenges can be found below:
  • Interventions to improve mathematical achievement in primary school
  • Steve Chinn