At Pencalenick, we believe that the knowledge, understanding and skills developed in Maths are essential for our pupils both now and in the future. We prepare our pupils by giving them numeracy skills for life. Where possible, we promote practical activities and relate exercises to topics of interest. Our aim is to have leavers that are independent and confident young adults able to face the numeracy challenges of real life around them.

We have developed our own curriculum that embraces the way that our pupils learn and enables us to better monitor the smaller steps of progress that our pupils make. The curriculum has been based on both National Curriculum objectives and PCAS (Pencalenick Cognitive Assessment Steps) which continue to promote high expectations whilst keeping the functional skills a priority. 

The areas in our Mathematics curriculum are:

• Number and place value
• Calculations
• Shape, measure, position and direction
• Money
• Time
• Data

Pupils have daily sessions of Maths. During these lessons, we promote lots of outdoor, practical learning related to real life experiences. In KS4, Pupils work towards a Functional Skills, Entry Level or ASDAN accreditation.

 Maths is implemented across the school in a way that best suits individuals’ learning, focusing on their interests and using practical and kinaesthetic activities. Maths is taught for mastery, encouraging a deeper understanding of topics and immediate intervention is given to prevent pupils falling behind. During lessons, there is a strong focus on EHCP targets inspiring pupils to show examples of independence, communication and emotion.

Children are given opportunities to progress within Maths with the implementation of concrete, pictorial and then abstract methods. Once they are confident with these steps, they move onto reasoning and problem solving.

Problem solving is encouraged through real life experiences and is linked to all areas of the curriculum. These steps are recapped regularly to ensure that pupils are able to retain skills into their long term memory.

For more information, please contact Subject Lead, Sharon Adams.  Email: SAdams@pencalenick.org