Ok, I thought this would be easier than it's proving to be!

I've had a good go at some of this but not convinced I've written the right thing...could anyone just give an idea if they think I'm on the right lines?
iii. The school's policy+procedures for developing pupil's understanding and use of number, including the use of calculators in appropriate year groups.

For this I have referred to the numeracy policy, stating how TAs and teachers discuss planning at the start of ther week; learning objectives are on the plans and the TA is clear of who to support and how. I've written about targets, assessments and discussion.I've mentioned how the policy states the need for diff learning styles to be catered for and how ICT is used as well as books, physical aids.
I've also mentiooned calulator use in school, that part I'm happy with.
I feel I'm missing something....

The next part I'm brain dead on is this....
v.The nature of any special educational needs of pupils with whom you work and the implications of these for helping them to develop mathematical knowledge, understanding and skills.

I seem to be really stuck here, not sure why. I do usually work with the very low ability and SEN children, but have just looked through their IEPs and only 1 has a maths target on. They all just have a very low level of understanding, so I've written about the fact I do a lot of consolidation work, practice accurate counting with objects, play games, recognise numbers. I've written that they need to be secure with number recognition, counting etc before moving on - mind you this doesn't always hapen at school, poor things sometimes find themselves doing something way over their heads.

I think I should write some more about other difficulties that children may have, spatial awareness maybe. I'm just not very experienced in anything beyond a low ability child, I'm not a 1-1 TA.

Sorry, this has gone on a bit. I've looked through all old posts but can't find anything to help me...probably being brain dead today

i can only think of dyscalculia at the moment, but dont forget they may need more reinforcement and practise to build on skills and learning, more explanation and different ways to calculate and check, remembering the tables may be difficult so may need strategies for those etc

Hi,

don't think too much into this. It could be as simple as an SEN child who finds adding up to 20 difficult or has trouble with multiplication how you would hlp them with this. A lot of what you've said already is right, using objects to count, making things visual, kineasthetic etc.

Hi,
Thank you so much for the replies - I've not gone back to my work for a few days, it's worrying me now that I've not finished it duting the hols...and this Numeracy unit has been scaring me a bit - I probably am trying to read too much into it. I know I'm perfectly able to support children in Numeracy, I love maths myself and enjoy helping children work through it. Just putting into words what i do every day and take for granted is proving difficult!
I'll have another go at it tomorrow. I think when I get back to schoo I'll make a point of writing notes about what I do every day, not just sporadically - I find it hard thinking of examples to back up the PIs, I need to record EVERYTHING!!
ANyway, enough waffling...thanks for taking the time to reply, it's a great help.

i agree its easier to make brief notes and keep copies of the work as you do it, also as Schooldaze says, dont try to put too much into it as most of the answers they are looking for are basic as she says

hi millyscarlett,
I did this unit and you seem to have written the right things.
My assessor always says think about incidents and examples when writing knowledge base.

v. I just wrote an example of working with a group who had trouble recognising numbers 1-5 (I work in a nursery). Then I wrote about the strategies used e.g. games of matching numbers etc. and how we included this in planning and how to move them on to numbers 5-10 once they had retained 1-5.

I hope this helps. Sometimes you feel that you haven't written enough even though you probably have! I always write what I think and let the assessor read through it and then she tells me if I need to add any more. That way I didn't go on too much and they know what they are looking for.

Thanks so much for the help...
I'm going to have a look at it tonight. I will definitely put in some examples of strategies I use in the classroom.
I think I'll get going better once I'm back at work. I really thought I'd get the course finished during the hols (3 units) - but I've not even completed 1, very lacking in motivation!

hi
i have a workbook that covers all the knowledge and understanding for this whole unit as well as the scopes. each standard has an example of what sort of information is required and set out in language that you will understand and with cross referencing written in for you eg 008 covers all the policies so you do not have to write about them in the unit 024

these workbooks are used by all of my candidates with great success - i teach, assess and IV the NVQ so please contact me if you are still stuck

Happyhun1

shouldnt all assessors be providing this type of support without candidates having to purchase workbooks though?

it seems very hit and miss with the amount of support some members get compared to others, maybe this needs to be addressed and standardised by the awarding bodies

i totally agree that the support from assessors and centres varies across the country and unfortunately it depends on the passion of the assessors in their role as to what the NVQ candidate gets.
I have spent months developing appropriate resources that will enable the candidates to achieve the NVQ’s easily and to the best of their ability. The resources provided by awarding bodies is basic and in some cases poor. There still seems to be little appreciation of our roles and responsibilities in school and how vital they are to the success of students and school tables for the government.
Let’s look at the how across the country TA’s wages are being cut by thousands because why? We are cheap labour without the teaching qualification. I am more than happy to provide guidance and support for any NVQ candidate free just ask for a small payment for my efforts and knowledge when it comes to these workbooks.