Pupils with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) form an ever-increasing pupil group in primary schools in England. Yet, teachers have had little training in how to best support them and find themselves conflicted with the mathematics national curriculum expectation that pupils of differing needs be taught together. This thesis investigates how pupils with a SLCN are educated in mainstream classrooms and how they learn mathematics. Its aim is to investigate connections between effective teaching in mathematics and pupils’ attainment as well as to explore specific areas of mathematical difficulty for this group of pupils.

This study adopted a mixed methods concurrent complementary design. Planned as a multiple case study, participants were five teachers drawn from five different primary schools in England and 28 pupil participants. Half the pupils were selected based on having a speech, language and communication need and were compared with a group of matched, typically developing children. Teacher planning, pupil work and teacher interviews were analysed qualitatively and pupils’ language scores and performance on a mathematical reasoning test and arithmetic test were analysed quantitatively. Pupils’ particular difficulties and strategies used to answer questions were also analysed.

Findings showed that pupils with SLCN did significantly less well on the reasoning paper than the arithmetic paper. Their performance on the arithmetic paper was in line with TD peers. Teacher interviews illustrated teachers’ general confidence in teaching mathematics aligned to the principles of the national curriculum but the independent work of pupils with SLCN showed little differentiation and adaptation for their particular needs.

The study concluded that pupils with SLCN may not be making the progress expected in mathematics due to a complexity of factors including lack of teacher awareness of their specific mathematical needs and strategies to support them in class.