This article explores how a differentiated approach can be employed to ensure continuity in primary mathematics lessons, thereby creating a supportive and progressive learning environment for young learners. The concept of differentiation in education has gained prominence as teachers seek to cater to diverse aptitudes, learning speeds, and personal interests within the same classroom. In mathematics, such differentiation involves a range of strategies—adjusting content complexity, employing diverse activities, and providing flexible groupings—to help each student progress at an appropriate pace. Simultaneously, continuity concerns the systematic linkage of mathematical concepts from lesson to lesson so that prior knowledge is consistently reinforced and extended. By uniting these two approaches, teachers can integrate older content into new lessons while tailoring the difficulty level to individual student needs. Drawing on contemporary educational research and practical classroom examples, this article argues that combining differentiation with carefully planned lesson progressions fosters stronger foundational skills, sustained motivation, and deeper conceptual understanding. In particular, the discussion focuses on how to manage group work, design tiered tasks, maintain ongoing formative assessments, and incorporate technology in ways that accommodate variations in student readiness. A table is included to illustrate core elements of the differentiated continuity-based approach, showing how each component contributes to the development of numeracy in early education. Ultimately, this article posits that by ensuring continuity within a flexible, differentiated framework, educators can optimize primary mathematics instruction, equipping every learner—whether advanced, struggling, or in between—to thrive.

Primary mathematics, differentiation, continuity

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