Scottish Borders - on a wave
Teachers in Scottish Borders have been looking at ways of providing for pupils with gaps in their mathematical understanding. Moira Sinclair, Numeracy Development Officer, decided that the way forward could be materials designed for the National Numeracy Strategy.
Resources for helping pupils
'Springboard' and 'Supporting children with gaps in their mathematical understanding' are two structured and detailed teaching processes that help pupils overcome their learning difficulties. Education authorities in England have been using the resources for some time. As a result of this, Scottish Borders decided to invite John Shute and Louise Mathews from Leeds Education Authority to do a continuing professional development session on these materials, for teachers in the authority. The in-service was repeated over five sessions to allow all interested teachers the opportunity to attend.
Wave classifications
The CPD session looked at the best way to support pupils with difficulty in mathematics. Classroom teaching was divided into three classifications. Normal class teaching, that was appropriate to the majority of the class, was designated Wave 1 teaching. Pupils who had experienced some difficulty with the work, but could catch up with some extra assistance, were helped using Wave 2 teaching. The third classification was Wave 3 teaching. This was a learning and teaching approach aimed at pupils who had difficulty with mathematics and probably would always need additional help to access the curriculum.
The Wave 2 teaching and learning process is supported by 'Springboard' materials. The Wave 3 teaching and learning is supported by a set of materials under the heading 'Supporting children with gaps in their mathematical understanding'. Both sets of materials contain lesson ideas, games and resources for use with interactive white boards.
Download the materials
The materials are free to download and can be accessed from The Standards Site: Mathematics:
A practical resource used as part of the CPD session was the 'Numicon Maths System'. For more information about this resource, please visit the Numicon website.
See also the Wave 3 Mathematics website.