Breakaway Maths

Each Pupil Book presents maths in a real life context through a story featuring four mulit-ethnic characters. There are different stories for each of the colour coded levels.

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"Breakaway Maths" provides an extensive range of materials for 7 to 11 year-olds who are having difficulty in mathematics. Children using the material should readily identify with the storylines and characters on which the pupils' books have been based. The series has minimal, simple text with overt picture cueing. It introduces the vocabulary of mathematics in easy stages to ensure that the reading level is not too advanced for the pupils. The scheme: covers National Curriculum Levels 1-3, Northern Ireland Curriculum Levels 1-3 and Levels A and B/C of the 5-14 Guidelines in Scotland; recognizes that practical mathematics should be the core of a maths programme for low achievers in maths; relates mathematics to everyday life through storylines; provides detailed cross-referencing between the pupils' books, workbooks, copymasters and teacher's resource books; offers teacher-independent resources and support for the non-specialist teacher; provides small steps in progression with extensive practice to build confidence and a sense of achievement; uses "age-neutral" illustrations so that children do not see the work as childish; and includes a CD-ROM option.
The teacher's resource book provides a guide to the scheme, suggestions for organization, curriculum correlations, ideas for practical activities and games, and an answer key. Each textbook is an episode of a story, featuring four multi-ethnic characters - Rupa, Lisa, David and Nicky - and the situations they find themselves in. There is a different story at each level: level 1 - a school trip to a castle; level 2 - a trip to Alton Towers theme park; and level 3 - an activity weekend. Each level is colour-coded rather than numbered, so that it is not obvious to pupils which levels each is working on. The number workbook is associated with a pupils' book, with each double-page spread in a workbook relating to a single textbook page. The workbook pages often reflect some aspect of the storyline or characters and provide opportunities to revisit an area of maths in a different context.
The photocopiable copymasters provide: pupil answer sheets for recording work done with textbooks; games and activities; additional worksheets; bland, pro-forma worksheets to allow the teacher to customize work to meet pupils' needs; and certificates to give pupils a sense of achievement and to record their progress. This evaluation pack contains one copy of the teacher's resource book, a pupils' book, a number workbook, a topic workbook and photocopiable copymasters.