The Numeracy Conference
with Les Staves, Dr Sarah Moseley, Richard Hirstwood, Nick Sheffield and Carol Allen.
We are announcing our second 2025 conference: a day focused on developing numeracy for learners with severe, complex or neurodiverse learning needs.
We examine the foundations and implementation of an effective and robust mathematical curriculum. Five impactful presentations will share strategies, ideas and resources to create a numeracy-rich learning environment in your classroom.
‘The Roots of Maths: Maths Mastery Specially Redefined’ with Les Staves
In this keynote, Les will explore the roots of maths and the nature of appropriate approaches to teaching and learning necessary for all children to understand and function in their practical and social worlds. These fundamentals remain essential in any curriculum and the life experiences we provide for pupils with severe, complex and neurodiverse learning needs.
‘Making maths make sense!’ with Nick Sheffield
To teach maths from the foundations upwards, Nick will examine the five key mathematical concepts and how they look for PMLD, SLD and MLD pupils. He will include lesson objectives and planning to illustrate how pupils learn the same principle with explicitly differentiated teaching for each pupil. Nick will cover ways of recording progress towards pupils’ individualised learning objectives. This session will showcase different ways to make maths come alive for all learners in a progressive and challenging way!
‘How to Use Technology and Apps to Support Early Mathematical Development’ with Richard Hirstwood
Richard will consider how to effectively integrate technology and carefully curated apps into a broad range of engaging and inclusive sensory mathematical activities. The suggested ideas and strategies will cover various sensory needs to support learners on their mathematical journey!
‘Touch, Feel, Count: Bringing Maths to Life Through Multi-Sensory Narrative’ with Dr Sarah Moseley
This session will explore how to bring maths to life through storytelling, using engaging narratives to introduce and reinforce key mathematical concepts. Through practical story examples, we will uncover ways to make counting, shapes, patterns, measurement, and problem-solving more accessible and meaningful for learners with complex needs. We can create immersive experiences that build understanding, engagement, and retention by weaving maths into sensory-rich storytelling. This session will provide practical strategies to embed mathematical thinking into daily learning through interactive narratives, sensory play, and real-world exploration, ensuring maths is both accessible and enjoyable for all learners.
‘Everyday Life – Everyday Maths!’ with Carol Allen
Mathematical concepts and operations are an integral part of everyday life. As our learners flourish when acquiring skills and understanding in various situations and formats, then utilising all opportunities for consolidation and generalisation makes sense. So, we will explore colours in bubble baths, setting tables, baking cupcakes and many more fun ideas to embed mathematical concept learning in everyday activities.
9 am Admissions and a virtual tea or Coffee to start the day!
9.05 am Welcome, introductions and a warm-up activity.
9.15 am Session 1: ‘The Roots of Maths: Maths Mastery Specially Redefined’ with Les Staves
10.00 am Session 2: ‘Making maths make sense!’ with Nick Sheffield
11 am Coffee
11.30 am Session 3: ‘Everyday Life – Everyday Maths!’ with Carol Allen
12.30 pm Lunch
1.30 pm Session 4: ‘Touch, Feel, Count: Bringing Maths to Life Through Multi-Sensory Narrative’ with Dr Sarah Moseley
2.15 pm Session 5: ‘How to Use Technology and Apps to Support Early Mathematical Development’ with Richard Hirstwood
3 pm Plenary, thank you and close of day!
Click on the names below to read more about our conference presenters!
This conference will be appropriate for classroom practitioners from special schools and colleges, mainstream settings with specialist SEN provision and early years settings, and those working with pupils with autism, and severe/complex learning needs or both.
The recording of this event will be in your account at online.hirstwood.com. You will access this using the email address on the booking form and your password (instructions for creating your password are in the joining information).
Here you will find:
a digital recording of the event
a transcript of the Zoom chat
These will be available for 10 days after the event.
£249 plus VAT per place
You can pay by credit card for this booking or request an invoice on the booking form.
