MathBase Testimonial: Hackney

Testimonial for MathBase and its Support for Language and CommunicationI have worked at 
		
		        
		Horizon Secondary Special School 
		
		
		for 12  years teaching pupils 
		with Moderate, Complex, Severe SEN and ASD/ASC. Language and Communication are at the heart of 
		my work with pupils who can have difficulties in very basic areas.  I installed Mathbase in
		my Drama and Music Studio and have used different areas of the programs to support the 
		development of Language and Communication around the fundamental concepts of simple number to 10.
Mathbase allows many different opportunities to invent and play simple group games at 
		the interactive whiteboard that involve small numbers to 10.  Pupils can match dice /domino spot 
		patterns that get increasingly more demanding as the number of spots is increased from 2 upwards.  
		Figures, spoken numbers, number words can all be matched in any combination.  There is a count 
		sound option where, for example, a sound of three drum beats has to be matched with the correct 
		figure etc. This gives a link to Music and counting beats.
It has enabled me as a teacher to support children in their education and learning 
		and has been a significant teaching and learning tool for the pupils in many different situations 
		around the school.  I have also supported Richard Glemberg himself when he was teaching Maths in 
		the school, which made me see maths in a very different light. An impressive range of practical 
		resources were in use, of which Mathbase was the latest invention - initially with the aim of 
		reducing the amount of time pupils spent doing work sheets which presented special difficulties 
		to our pupils and which was undermining their progress. I recall some of my own maths learning as dull and 
		not always relevant to the world that I was growing up in and around! Mathbase is far from dull, 
		in fact it is the complete opposite.
So this fantastic, varied series of Mathbase is essential for teaching in my opinion
		and can be of so much use to Primary and Secondary teachers alike and help to make Maths lessons 
		even more interesting, exciting and relevant in our very modern 21st Century world. Richard 
		has created superb teaching and learning resources which our school has used for many years 
		now and would recommend to all schools.
Duncan Melvin
Music, Drama and English teacher
Horizon School, Hackney, London