This webinar will offer teachers and schools advice, tips and tried and tested ideas for how we can support children and young people who struggle in the mathematics classroom.

While mathematics is the most popular A level option post-16 and is highly sought-after in the jobs markets, many pupils can struggle – with some developing a dislike and even a fear of the subject that lasts into adulthood. This webinar will focus on supporting these children and young people and will discuss the common barriers to engagement, motivation and successful outcomes – before then considering how we might address and overcome these.

In particular, we will discuss attitudes to mathematics study and how to support pupils who believe they are “no good at maths”. We will discuss “maths anxiety”, what this is, and how it affects pupils. And we will consider how to support pupils whose fear of making mistakes is holding them back. We will discuss engaging with families and how we can help parents and carers to support positive pupil attitudes and motivation to study maths.

We will consider how we can identify pupils who are struggling and what kind of intervention and support is effective in supporting these children to “catch-up” and make progress.

We will address recommendations from the Education Endowment Foundation’s studies into effective maths teaching (Clark & Henderson, 2021; Henderson et al, 2022) and ideas for the classroom. Themes will include assessing pupils’ prior knowledge and understanding; teaching problem-solving strategies and using tasks to build confidence; developing pupil independence and motivation; and structured interventions to provide additional support.

Our discussion will be inspired by recent YouGov polling of more than 1,000 teachers (primary and secondary) commissioned by GL Assessment. The results show that 59% believe “maths anxiety” is the biggest barrier to achievement (defined in the survey as “a feeling of apprehension that interferes with students' ability to solve maths problems").

Other barriers include a lack of support at home (52%), and a lack of additional support in the classroom (34%). The poll also found that teachers believe girls make slower progress in maths than boys because they are more worried about making mistakes. We will discuss these findings.