What do you do when the same children are repeatedly disengaged in your lessons? It’s a question that has long plagued education - and one that has no easy answers, not least, because different solutions may be needed depending on the subject that you teach.

Recently, we looked at what teachers could learn from those working in alternative provisions (APs) about how to engage the most reluctant learners with English and literacy, as they work towards the targets set out in the government’s recent Schools White Paper.

But there is another subject currently facing the pressure of more ambitious attainment targets: maths. Indeed, the White Paper sets out the expectation that the national average GCSE grade in maths should increase from 4.5 in 2019 to 5 by 2030.

In the paper, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi also makes a “Parent Pledge”, which states that “your child’s school will intervene to help if they fall behind in English or maths”. Of course, this is something that schools already do, but, in making the requirement explicit, it is likely that teachers’ work in this area will soon be coming under closer scrutiny.

Finding ways to engage reluctant learners with maths is, therefore, becoming even more important. But what is the best approach to take? 

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APs and pupil referral units (PRUs) could once more offer some insights here. They have extensive experience working with some of the most reluctant learners and are well-versed in the types of interventions that work best with these students.

Engaging pupils in maths: what can APs and PRUs tell us?

So what can mainstream teachers learn from them when it comes to maths?

Cheryl Folkes is a maths teacher at the Hayes Campus of Bromley Trust Academy (BTA), a secondary alternative provision in south-east London. In her experience, she says, reluctance to engage in maths is often down to the nature of the secondary curriculum, and a lack of focus on the basics for those who are struggling. 

“When children get to key stage 3, all the fun is sucked out of maths. Often, they will have enjoyed it so much in primary, and then get completely lost at secondary. I always make sure that I go right to the basics,” she says. “It’s all about tapping into those memories they had at primary school.”

Students first entering the school spend about a week in a specialist internal provision, called the Assessment and Testing Centre (ATC), before entering regular lessons. Here, teachers build relationships with students while they complete a range of baseline assessments. 

An exit plan is then devised on the basis of those assessments, which Folkes uses to determine the first activity students will complete in her class. As a rule of thumb, she chooses an area that they are relatively comfortable with, but could do with some improvement in, and uses Hegarty Maths activities to target this area.

“This gives them a head start: it doesn’t destroy their confidence, and it’s something they can get on with in their own time. It’s all about making sure that when they come into the lesson, they don’t feel lost or panic,” she says. 

Once students are comfortable in the classroom, Folkes introduces competitions to get them interested and engaged. She uses a free game called “Hit the Button” as a reward at the end of lessons; this asks students quick-fire questions on areas of maths, such as number bonds, times tables and division. 

The attention of disengaged learners can often be captured by activities that involve an element of competition, she explains. “They often come into the lesson asking to play Hit the Button straight away, but I insist that if they all work hard, we can play it for 10 minutes at the end as a treat. They just love it.”

Another game used right across the school is Numeracy Ninjas: this pairs intensive maths learning with interactive timed questions. Students start as a “white belt” and move up to a “black belt”. 

The game is used every Thursday during form time, outside of the maths classroom. This is crucial, says Folkes, as it helps to build up an enjoyment of maths in its own right, rather than as part of a maths lesson. It also feeds back data to Folkes, and the other maths teachers, so that they can identify gaps in learning. 

At BTA, then, the focus is less about building specific maths skills, and more about building a positive attitude towards maths. At Nacro, a social justice charity with a range of AP centres across the country, the focus is similar.  

Amber Osborn-Smith is the head of curriculum and quality at Nacro and she says that all of the centres have a strong focus on building a growth mindset and resilience in students, which, in turn, increases their engagement in maths and willingness to try. 

“It’s about the journey of maths, how we present maths and the challenges the subject can bring. We are honest with learners: it is a challenge, but that’s not a bad thing. We are positive about making mistakes, we ask learners: what really good mistake did you make today and what did you learn from it?,” she says. 

In order to help learners to move on from mistakes, exercise books have been replaced with big pieces of paper that cover the desk. Students can write all over the paper, cross things out, start again: it doesn’t need to be kept tidy and neat in the same way an exercise book does, and each lesson starts with a fresh piece of paper. 

Across the curriculum, maths teachers will often teach alongside vocational teachers in other lessons, explaining the relevance and importance of maths to what is being taught.  

“Students do maths every single day, whether they’ve got a specific maths lesson or not. Maths is part and parcel of their vocational interests: they will need to be able to work out the measurement of a room when looking at how many bricks they need, for example, and they’ll need to figure out their tax if they’re self-employed tradespeople,” she says. “Bringing maths into their world really helps to pique their interest, and ensures they engage.” 

What would work in the mainstream classroom?

The approaches at both BTA and Nacro are tailor-made for their students, and are clearly elevated by the smaller class sizes in these settings. For example, while the idea of maths teachers coming into other lessons to help contextualise maths and strengthen real-world links might appeal in practice, this would be difficult to organise in the average secondary school, where staffing may already be an issue.

However, there are some techniques that mainstream teachers can more readily embed in their own classrooms.

One easy win, Folkes says, is setting up a buddy system: pair someone who is struggling with someone who is really engaged with maths, and allow the students to support each other. This, she says, can be a great help when they don’t have the confidence to ask the teacher for support.

Another suggestion Folkes has is to prepare the reluctant learners before the lesson itself so there are no surprises. 

“One of the main causes of maths anxiety is the element of surprise, so making sure they have as much information about the lesson before they arrive can really help. This can be as simple as taking them aside at the end of the previous lesson and saying, next time you see me we will be learning about X,” she explains. 

Folkes also urges teachers to allow reluctant students to take ownership of their work, and give them the time and space to work things out for themselves. However, alongside this, there has to be the assurance that a teacher is always on hand to help them one-on-one if they need it. 

Another key thing for teachers to consider is the need to take a trauma-informed approach, says Osborn-Smith. Making the time to understand why a child might be disengaging is key: that’s how you raise attendance, build trust and make learners feel safe and cared for, she says.

But the responsibility here shouldn’t just fall on maths teachers. Osborn-Smith recommends ensuring there is collaboration across the school: it’s not just the job of the maths teachers to engage reluctant learners with maths, she stresses. 

“The more that every other subject teacher can stress the importance of maths, and embed some maths into the lessons, and show that all of these things are interlinked, the better,” she says. 

There are, of course, strategies suggested here that mainstream teachers would struggle to replicate: the average secondary maths teacher is working in a very different context, with larger class sizes and different staff ratios, to name just a couple of issues.

However, there are also approaches that could translate with a bit of work: using paper in place of an exercise book, for instance, at least for some activities.

There are also strategies that many mainstream teachers will use already, but could perhaps use more often or more explicitly, such as: harnessing the power of competition, reframing mistakes and encouraging all subject teachers to talk positively about maths and its application to the real world. Such approaches don’t need a lot of extra resources or development to embed, so perhaps they’re worth a try.