MATHEMATICS IN THE EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE

(FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM AND HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT YOUR CHILD'S LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT AT HOME PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE DOCUMENTS AND LINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE AND LOOK OUT FOR THE FLYERS FOR OUR PARENTS' WORKSHOPS.)

Mathematics in the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum comes under two strands, each of which has an Early Learning Goal attached:-

Number

Early Learning Goal - Have a deep understanding of number to 10, including the composition of each number;

- Subitise (recognise quantities without counting) up to 5;

- Automatically recall (without reference to rhymes, counting or other aids) number bonds up to 5 (including subtraction facts) and some number bonds to 10, including double facts.

Numerical Patterns
Early Learning Goal - Verbally count beyond 20, recognising the pattern of the counting system;

- Compare quantities up to 10 in different contexts, recognising when one quantity is greater than, less than or the same as the other quantity;

- Explore and represent patterns within numbers up to 10, including evens and odds, double facts and how quantities can be distributed equally.

The Early Learning Goals define the level of development children are expected to attain by the end of the Reception year. The vast majority of pupils at Wellfield achieve these Early Learning Goals.

As with all other Areas of Learning, the teaching and learning of mathematics in our Nursery and Reception classes takes place both indoors and outdoors through a wide range of practical and "hands on" activities.

The staff use their knowledge and expertise to plan for a high quality learning environment which provides children with lots of opportunities to explore different aspects of number and shape, space and measures and learn new concepts. The children have a wide range of structured play resources available to them throughout the year - this is known as "continuous provision". The adults model the use of these resources and the appropriate mathematical language as they support the children in their play.

For example, children learn about capacity through their sand, mud and water play indoors and outdoors. They use containers of different shapes and sizes to measure and compare.

Children develop their knowledge and understanding of shapes and their properties through their experiences of activities such as junk modelling and block play.

Blockplay also offers children the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of some key concepts relating to number such as "Conservation of Number" which means knowing that when a group of objects are moved around the total remains the same. This is a prerequisite skill to calculation.

We also develop children's early counting and number skills using resources such as board games and dice, number tracks, dominoes and Numicon.

Our outdoor activities include plenty of opportunities for children to count and read and write numbers, such as games using targets or games involving scoring and adding up points such as skittles.

In addition to the opportunities for child initiated play indoors and outdoors, staff plan adult led activities for groups of children and individuals based on their observations of what children know and can do. They plan activities to address any misconceptions that have arisen and to introduce new concepts.

In Reception we use the Mastering Number Maths as our main teaching scheme. This scheme has been developed by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) and is implemented with the support of the local DFE funded Maths Hub. The Mastering number project was devised to help to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children and at our school we run this from Reception through to the end of Year Two. In Reception it focuses on the key knowledge and understanding about number concepts that provide the children with the foundations to build on as they progress through Key Stage One. An overview of what is covered each term can be found below.

Our staff also use other sources such as the materials developed by the Early Childhood Maths Group (ECMG) to support teaching and learning in this area. The ECMG have also created some useful Maths Postcards for families which offer ideas for how to support children's mathematical development. You can access these postcards using the link provided below.

For additional information and ideas about maths in the EYFS please take a look at our Year Group pages and follow the links below.