Supporting Maths Difficulties

All children and young people in Essex should:-

• have high quality maths teaching
• have their individual needs identified and met early on, if they have maths difficulties despite appropriate learning opportunities;
• get the help they need to make progress in maths.

You can find out more about the Essex Approach to Maths Difficulties – Information for Parents

The first response to supporting children at school should be high quality teaching targeting any areas of difficulty.  This is sometimes called ‘Quality First Teaching’ which is a style of teaching that emphasises universal and inclusive teaching for all pupils in a class.  A classroom teacher can provide support as part of their everyday teaching. All pupils in mainstream setting can have this support.  This is called universal support.    

The Ordinarily Available (OA) is a framework that explains what support is available in Early Years settings, primary and secondary schools in Essex. 

Schools are required to support all pupils with universal teaching, with appropriate reasonable adjustments in place.  If a child’s needs are not being met with universal teaching then additional special educational needs support will need to be considered – this is called SEN Support.  Every school is required to identify and address the SEN of the pupils that they support and record when they decide a child has special educational needs in the school records.  

If your child’s difficulties or diagnosis has an impact on their learning and education, we would advise requesting a meeting with their school. The meeting should be used to talk about your child’s needs and difficulties and agree a plan around supporting and managing them. 

Support strategies for maths difficulties could be developed around:

For more information on how pupils SEN needs are supported read our information pages on  One Planning and Raising Concerns