INCLUSIVE
MATHEMAT ICS
CLASSROOMS
Mike Ollerton explores the theme of inclusion.
Inclusionis one of the themeswithinthe recent
Q ualificationsand Curriculum Authority(QCA)
publication:Engagingm athem aticsfor all learn ers
and I had the good fortune to participatein this
project. This involvedw orkingw ith five schools
w hich,frivolousl y, all had a capitalB connection,
either geographically: Burnley, B lackburn, Bolton
and Belper, or by nam e:B aliol schoolin Sedbergh.
Yes, th is ‘B ’connectionw as only slightlyamusing
the first time I noted it.
Seekingto definethe w ord ‘inclusion’or ‘inclu-
sive’,w hen appliedto m athem aticsclassroom s,is
com plexand I wouldim aginethere will be a range
of interpretations,representationsand manifesta-
tions. M y definitionof inclusionpertainsto w hat a
school,a m athem aticsdepartm ent,or an individual
teacherseeksto do in order to providethe
learners with theirentitlementto the statutory
national curriculum for mathematics.This
entitlementis, or shouldbe, m ade accessibleto all
studentsirrespec- tive of notionsof so-called
‘ability’, or socio- economicbackground.
I felt the title of the Q C A project,E ngaging
m a th e m a ticfosr a ll le a r n es,r autom aticallyhas a sense
of inclusionrunning throughit. M y definition
above,how ever, is rather broad; it can be all too
easyto talk or write in platitudes.So, in order to
illustratemy definition,I intend to describehow
two of the schools,B alioland Belper, developed
approachesto teachingand learning w hichdemon-
strated inclusivepractices.
B aliolis a schoolwhich:
‘... c a te rsfo r b o y sw ith e x tre m be e h a v ior,u
em o tio n aaln d so c iadl iffic u ltieMs. a n yb o y sa ls o
h a v eo th erle a rn in dg iffic u lties a n d /o rd isa b ilitie s
in c lu d in cgo m p lic a temde d ic anl e e d s.A ll th e b o y s
h a v ee x p e rie n cme da jo rd iffic u ltieins m ainstream
a n d o th e re d u c a tio n sea l ttin g as n d m a n yh a v eb e e n
MAT H E MAT ICS T EA CH ING 216 / NOV E M B ER 2009
e x c lu d e dT.h e so c io -e c o n o mb aicc k g ro u nodf m a n y
o f th e b o y sis o n eo f d isa d v a n ta g e .’
(Ofsted,2008).
It was,therefore,somewherebetweenamazing
and fantasticthat Baliolofferedinclusionto those
alreadyexcludedfrom mainstreamschooling.
Duringthe project I visitedB aliolon four
occasions,and each time there was a composed
and relativelyinform al air about the schoolyet, at
the sam e tim e, a convictionamongststaffthat the
boys were there to learn and to succeedin their
learning. BecauseB aliolis a residentialschoolthe
boyshaveopportunitiesto engagein a wide range
of activitiesbeyondthe classroom These . involve
differentsporting,fitness,and outdoor pursuit type
activitiesand day tripsto a Fire Station,Kendal
Castleand W illiam sonPark, Lancasterwhich
containsAshtonM em orial– a fam ousfolly,
som etim escalledthe Taj M ah alo f the North, with
a tropicalButterfly H ouse,a ForeignBird House
and ConservationGarden.Furthermore, the boys’
socialdevelopm entis, in part, cateredfor by having
accessto m anygam eswhichthey playin the
evenings.These gam esrangefrom table tennis,
snooker, darts and dominoesto a life-sizegam eof
ConnectFour.
It w as thesegam eswhichthe head of mathe-
m atics,the assistanthead-teache r, wantedto
exploitas stim ulifor developingthe boys’mathe-
maticsin timetabledlessons.He intuitivelyfelt
there was potentialto use recreational,out-of-
classroomactivitiesas learning contextswhich
pupilscould relate to, and use and apply, within
their mathematicslessons.The main reasonfor
w ishingto use out-of-classroomactivitiesinside the
classroomw as to find w aysof w orkingw ith ‘real’
data – data that is realto the students.Usingsuch
data w as consideredto be an effectivew ayof
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 m otivating pupils in their formal learning of
m athem atics;the boysat Baliolneed to see how
the m athem aticsthey are learning can relate to life
beyondthe classroom so , m akinguse of out-of-
classroom activities w as considered to be important.
We talked about the possibilitiesof students
collecting information from som e of the games
they play. Exam pleswere:
• w hen playingsnooker, they could look at the
ratio of the number of points scored compared
to the num ber of shots taken.
• w hen playingdarts, they could keep a record of
the ratio of score againstnumber of darts
thrown.
• w hen playingConnectFour, the w inningline
could be recordedas a set of co-ordinates,
particularlyif a pair of axes w ere m arkedon the
board.
To underpinthe use of out-of-classroom
tiesactivi-
the head of m athem aticsdeviseda theoretical
model– see below– whichconnectedtogether:
• the key processesas definedin the new
program m esof studyfor secondary mathe-
matics,
• personal,learning and thinkingskills
• nationalcurriculum leveldescriptionsto locate
the boys’achievements.
6 MATH EMAT ICS T E A C H ING 216 / NOV E M BER 2009
Gatheringinformationbased upon the key
processes,personal,learning and thinkingskillsand
nationalcurriculum attainm entwhichemerged
from the theoreticalm odelwas an importantstep.
These recordsare used formativelyso the boysare
kept well inform ed about their achievementsand
what their next steps mightbe, they also allowstaff
to identifyteachingpriorities.
A n integralpart of the successof this project
w as to w ork w ith eveningsupportstaffto explain
how they could encouragestudentsto gatherinfor-
mation from the gam esthey played,w ithoutthis
beingperceivedas an im positionon the boys’social
time. Duringthe course of the pilot, staffreported
positiveoutcom esand this led to a short film being
made to illustrateapproachesthe staffdeveloped
and the boysengagedin, both insideand outside
the m athem aticsclassroom A . key objectivew as to
enablestudentsto see how m athem aticsis not
som ethingw hichexistsonly in a m athem aticsclass-
room . A lready, the use of out-of-classroomactivi-
ties as a contextfor m athem aticshas had a positive
impacton the boys’attitudesand achievement.
However, the head of m athematicsbelievesthat the
activitiesutilisedso far are only the ‘tip of an
iceberg’.
BelperH igh Schoolis an 11-18 mixed commu-
nity schoolwith 1500 studentson roll – 240 in
the
6th form . Belperis a specialisttechnologycollege
and is stronglycom m ittedto teachingin mixed-
abilitytutor groups.The mathematicsdepartment
wishedto developa w ider range of investigative
approachesin lessonsand build such approaches
into schemesof work.The m otivationfor change
•aswhere
w to develop approaches:
students take greaterresponsibilityfor
the w ork they do,
• wherestudentsdeveloptheir m athem atical
thinkingskillsthroughengagingw ith rich
m athematicaltasks
• wherestudentsplay an activerole and find
thingsout for themselves
• that supportand enabledifferentiatedlearning
• that reflectthe requirem entsof the new
secondary curriculum program m esof studyfor
m athem atics,particularlykey conceptsand key
processes
• that reducethe need to use exercises
from textbooks.
The departmentchose to developthe use of
one specificresourcerather than a range of ideas
and resources.

The resourcewas the square9-pin geoboard
with problemsbased uponthis resource.The ideas
were piloted in the sum m erterm of 2008 with Y 9
classes.
This w ork w as evaluated in terms of what
w orkedwell,and what changesthe department
w ouldm ake for usinga 9-pin geoboardw ith Y7
studentsin the springterm of 2009.
Q uite ‘sim ply’ the students werepresented
with the problem:
‘H o wm a n yq u a d rila te r ac ls
a n b e m a d eo n a
9-pin g e o b orda ? ’
This gaverise to a w ide varietyof other
geom etricissuesto be workedon – whichwere:
• Propertiesand nam esof the quadrilaterals
produced
• Congruence
• Transformations
• C lassifyingquadrilateral s according to properties
• C alculatingarea
• C alculating,by m easuringor sym bolising,
perimeter
• Calculatingand/or m easuringangle
Studentswere encouragedto w ork in a variety
of w ays– individuall y, in pairs,in sm all groupsand
to participatein w holeclassdiscussions.Utilising
this rangeof learning approachesthe teachersmade
ongoingassessm entsw hichdeterm ined the kind of
questionsteachersposed to individualsand to
groups.This w as allintrinsicto w orkingwith
m ixed-abilitygroups;what occurred in one lesson
inevitablyim pactedupon plansfor the next lesson.
W hilethere w as a significant depthof outline
planningover the course of the project,lesson-by-
lessonplanschangedaccordingto ongoingdevelop-
ments and student reaction.
Studentevaluationswere collectedfrom the Y 9
pilot in the summerterm and these evaluations
were used to inform developmentsfor using
geoboardsw ith Y 7 studentsin the autumn term.
Subsequentlythese Y 7 studentsw ere askedto
evaluatethe project and these, in turn, shaped
further developm entsfor w orkingwith other Y 7
groupsin the 2009 springterm. Teachersfelt
there was ahigh levelof engagem entby students,
and the qualityof discussionenabledstudentsto
developa
MAT H E MAT ICS T EA CH ING 216 / NOV E M B ER 2009
robust understandingof the conceptsunder
consideration.
Workinginclusivelyw ith all-abilitytutor groups
m eansthe issueof differentiatedlearning is not,
supposedl y, m askedor ‘dealtwith’ throughthe
usualorganisationw ithinschoolsby setting
according to notions of ‘ability’. This being the case,
mathematic s teachers at Belper are aware of the need
to use ideasand resourcesw hichenabledifferent
studentsto achievedifferentoutcom esnaturally.
Differentoutcomesm anifestthem selvesthrough
studentsworkingon m ore com plexideas as w ellas
workingto differentdepths of understanding.
The mathematicsdepartmentat Belperare
now in the processof reorganisingtheir schem es
of
work into units of studythat last betweentwo and
three w eeks.The idea is that each unit will draw
togetherdifferentaspectsof the KS3 program m eof
studyin a coherentw ay to enablestudentsto make
linksbetweenconnectedareasof m athematics.The
intentionis that for each unit there shouldbe at
least one ‘rich task’to engagestudents,and enable
them to focuson m athem aticalprocesses,for
exam ple– system atising, seekingpattern, conjec-
turing,generalizing, as w ellas learning mathemat-
ical content.The departmenthas plannedINSET
w here they w illdiscuss,as a team , exactlywhat
constitutesa rich task, do some mathematics
together and de-construct existing ideas to consider
how the use of rich tasks m ightrequire a different
pedagogicalapproachto their teaching.
Inclusivityfor B aliol Schoolm eansenabling
studentsto accesslearning throughm eaningfuland
engagingopportunities.B eforecom ingto B aliol
studentshavebeen unsuccessful,and m anylack
confidencein their capabilities.Seekingto support
these students’learning of m athem aticsrequires
im aginativeand creativeapproaches.Drawingon
experiencesbeyondthe m athem aticsclassroomis
likelyto prove m otivatingand engagingfor all
learners, see for exam plecases studiesin Q CA’s
Engagingm athem aticsfor all learn erswhich
includeusingthe playground,dance,fashionand
architectureas contextsfor learning mathematics.
Inclusivityis m ore than just findingtasksfor
studentsto engagewith;thoughtasksthem selves
are important.It is the underpinningpedagogy,
and the desire to providestudentswith
opportunitiesto achieveas highly aspossible,
irrespectiveof their current circumstances,and
withoutthe constraint
of expectationsbased on prior attainmentthat
drivean inclusiveapproachto the teachingand
Mike Ollerton is a freelance consultant.
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