Cross-curricular teaching is a concept familiar to primary school teachers but it is rarely applied to maths.
In a topic on Ancient Greece, for example, we would read myths during story time, use the gods to inspire character descriptions, create Greek pots in art, and build temples structurally supported by Grecian columns in design technology. Maybe we’d even shoehorn some athletics into our PE lessons so that we could hold a mini-Olympics at the end of term. But no maths.
A growing number of schools are turning to schemes for maths teaching, which does ensure curriculum coverage but lessens the options for cross-curricular integration, which, in turn, means missed opportunities for cementing the “why” of maths.
And this has knock-on effects: if pupils can’t answer the question of why maths is useful, motivation wanes and enthusiasm declines. And this will only be exacerbated in secondary school.
For example, while most maths leaders I have spoken to recognise the importance of incorporating some kind of financial education into learning, the topic is often covered discretely, as it has natural crossover with the personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) curriculum.
There are also some mathematical concepts that lend themselves better to demonstrating how one might use maths in the real world, such as multiplication and division. Cue the word problems: “Alex and his three friends want four pieces of pizza each. Each pizza comes in six slices. How many pizzas do they need to order?” Children can see, through such word problems, when maths could come in handy later in life.
But what about perimeter and area? Geometry? The angles of a triangle? Statistics? Why do they need those skills? A cross-curricular approach could address the scarcity of credible problem-solving questions around these more niche maths topics.
Primary maths: the power of investigations
Instead of teaching maths as an isolated subject with a set of abstract skills to learn, we should integrate maths activities into thematic lessons. It doesn’t have to be a whole unit of work like we would for English or art, but perhaps a one-off investigation lesson every few weeks that works in parallel and in support of the scheme that the school is using.
How about learning how to read coordinates to help Theseus escape the labyrinth? Or using perimeter to design a Roman villa? How about being able to weigh ingredients with accuracy to make a hearty Viking stew as a class? Or designing an Ancient Egyptian pyramid using angles?
The possibilities are endless, and these lessons would answer many of our desired objectives: curriculum coverage, the application of skills to real-world problems, practical and visual activities that enhance engagement, suitability for learners with special educational needs, and making the maths skill more relatable and less abstract. All of this while adding depth and value to the topic they are invested in, giving a more rounded learning experience.
Teaching maths this way, in my personal experience, can be hugely rewarding and impactful. It promotes talk and reasoning skills, as well as providing a hook for those children who might not naturally gravitate towards the subject.
We all have those students whose eyes light up when you say “we have a Vikings lesson today” but whose shoulders slump at the mention of maths. Let’s capture their interest by showing them that Vikings used maths, too: to balance their boats before a raid, to build a longhouse, to trade at markets for valuable products.
I am by no means against maths schemes: they are a great way to ensure curriculum coverage as well as consistency across year groups and school-wide. However, an overreliance on them, with little manipulation of the material, risks deskilling teachers who used to plan creative maths lessons from scratch for every lesson of every unit of work.
Time is also an issue. There is barely enough of it in the jam-packed primary timetable to get through the maths curriculum in the usual way, never mind finding slots for additional cross-curricular investigation lessons. To embed such an approach would need support from leaders, with solutions as to how it would fit into the timetable and not increase teacher workload, which absolutely needs to be protected.
But the benefits to the children would be worth it. Cross-curricular maths breaks the notion of an abstract subject and shows that these skills can be applied to all sorts of everyday activities and in real-life problems. And most importantly, they show why maths matters.
Hannah Crosby is a former maths lead in primary schools
