Maths in EYFS

Maths is one of the four specific areas within the EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE (EYFS) 

The EYFS, Development Matters, states that

"Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers.

By providing frequent and varied opportunities to build and apply this understanding – such as using manipulatives, including small pebbles and tens frames for organising counting – children will develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built. 

In addition, it is important that the curriculum includes rich opportunities for children to develop their spatial reasoning skills across all areas of mathematics including shape, space and measures.

It is important that children develop positive attitudes and interests in mathematics, look for patterns and relationships, spot connections, ‘have a go’, talk to adults and peers about what they notice and not be afraid to make mistakes."

Each specific area has Early Learning Goals, which the children are working towards in their Reception year. For maths these are:

Number

Children at the expected level of development will:
- 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

Children at the expected level of development will:
- 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.

As with all other areas of learning, the teaching and learning of mathematics in our EYFS takes place both inside and outside through a wide range of practical and "hands on" activities. All our maths sessions use practical resources so we can utilise the concrete/pictorial/abstract CPA approach. We also conduct maths sessions outside using active maths as our children learn well when they are moving and playing.

We use the White Rose Maths Scheme to support our teaching, and maths is taught through stories, practical fun activities, games and play. 

Teachers use their knowledge and expertise to plan for a high quality leaning environment which provides children with lots of opportunities to explore different aspects of number and numerical patterns and learn new concepts. The children have a wide range of continuous provision to support mathematical play. For example, children may learn about capacity through their water play, both indoors and outdoors. In addition to the opportunities for child initiated play, staff also 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. 

Through adult led activities the children are introduced to an range of visual representations to help them understand a concept.

Subitising

We are embed subitising in maths throughout all sessions. The approach White Rose Maths uses is that children learn that all numbers are made up of smaller units. We utilise subitising to allow children to group units to count them quicker and be more adaptable to manipulating numbers.

Subitising is recognising how many objects are present by sight. A short video here explains the importance of subitising in early maths. 

Numicon 

We use Numicon as a concrete resource to teach number and place value. Numicon helps children to visualise numbers. The different coloured Numicon shapes represent different numbers. Numicon is multi-sensory. Children can touch as well as see the numbers, from this visual picture they are able to see how we can add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers and the relationship between them. Numicon  allows children to 'see' number, make connections, see patterns and show what they are explaining giving children a deeper understanding of number.

We introduce visual representations;

10 frame - 

We introduce 5 and 10 frames very early on to support children to organise their items to count them more easily, and to help subitise as well as start to see number bonds early on.

Part, part whole -

We use story books to introduce certain aspects of maths, such as positional language using Rosie’s Walk or sharing using The Doorbell Rang. Children in our class love stories and using stories and pictures help embed their learning.

As well as the taught sessions we also use the continuous provision to embed and practice these maths skills. Although we have a dedicated area in our class for our maths resources and a maths working wall to show the skills we are working on, maths happens everywhere in our setting. We also have a maths shed outside to allow the children to know where to go when they need specific resources such as measuring tapes or weighing scales.

When we see children playing freely we like to inject the 3 M’s into their play whenever we can see an opportunity. The 3 Ms are mark-making, making conversation and of course maths!

• We may see a child making a playdough pizza, we can ask them if they can cut it into half, or can they share it between 4 people?
• If they are pretending to be in the shop, we introduce money and price labels.
• If they are playing with the cars and the ramps, we may ask them to think about how they can measure how far the cars go, which goes furthest etc.
• Scoring systems are used in football and ball games as well as numbered targets. 

As part of our daily routine we always:

• Talk about the day and date – children learn to count up, use one more, one less when working out the dates for today, yesterday and tomorrow.
• We vote for a class book each day using our own named pegs. We then look at the baskets to estimate which we think has more, then we count the pegs to check
• We work out how many children are having sandwiches by counting hands put up
• We look at the spaces on the carpet and work out how many children are missing and as the year progresses we use the 10 frames with counters to work out how many children are in
• As we line up for lunch we count up in a line starting with the 1^st child saying 1; 2^nd saying 2 etc; They are developing their listening skills as well as their ordinal position.
• We use number rhymes throughout the week (with props) to help the children to count up and backwards as well as work out 1 more or one less

Please see the ‘Maths in EYFS’ page on the EYFS section of our website for suggestions of activities children can enjoy Maths at home. There are also a multitude of photographs of how Maths is being used through continuous provision.

Maths in Y1 - Y6

Here at Newbold Church of England Primary School (NCS), we have the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics’ (NCETM’s) definition of mastery as part of our longer whole school aim. We share the ethos that through a whole class approach, whilst some of our children will spend longer on particular mathematical concepts (through interventions e.g. pre-teach, SOS time, post-teach), others will reach a deeper level of understanding.

‘Mastering maths means pupils acquire a deep, long-term, secure and adoptable understanding of the subject. The phrase ‘teaching for mastery’ describes the best elements of classroom practise and school organisation that combine to give pupils the best chances of mastering maths. Achieving mastery means acquiring a solid enough understanding of the maths that’s been taught to enable pupils to move onto more advanced material’. (NCETM)

White Rose Maths at Newbold Church of England Primary School

We firmly believe the teaching of Mathematics in our school is strengthening each year. NCS follow the White Rose Maths Mastery Scheme from EYFS to Year 6 and these materials have historically proven to be very successful at our school. All lessons are carefully planned and sequenced and aim to build on all forms of prior learning. All children are regularly exposed to problem solving activities and this demands they use logical reasoning to explore and explain concepts daily. Using a concrete-pictorial-abstract approach throughout school, our children develop a deep and sustainable understanding of mathematics. Children are encouraged daily to work collaboratively to help them make sense of these problems and concepts.

Our Mathematics lessons

Mathematics lessons at NCS have a clear structure and are sequenced so every mathematical concept is deeply secured. Pupils begin each lesson with daily arithmetic starters to support fluency. These starters have had a big impact on our children as through revisiting prior knowledge whether it be from the previous year of a previous topic, mathematical fluency skills are being embedded each day. Our daily arithmetic starters are also a very useful assessment tool for teachers which helps lessons be planned and sequenced to the needs of our children.  

Once the daily starters are completed and the learning objective has been shared, the children begin working through the clear structure of the lesson which White Rose Maths enables them to do. Collaborative learning is central to this process as the children are encouraged to work together to explore new concepts and reason/explain their findings. Visual representations and practical equipment are used to support their learning as teaching staff continue to challenge the children through questioning.

All pupils are given the chance to work independently as they move on to work in their own NCS books. Children regularly receive feedback from staff and view the process of unpicking misconceptions as a real opportunity to make a difference and positively impact our children’s learning development. With this ethos in the forefront of our minds, the children understand and accept that making mistakes is a normal and beneficial aspect of learning. At the end of each lesson, pupils are given a reasoning/problem solving style question which demands they respond to a question based on that lesson’s learning objective.

Cross-curricular opportunities

Maths is an integral part of the whole curriculum at Newbold Church of England Primary School (NCS). Teachers are always identifying opportunities to factor mathematics into the wide curriculum offered as we see it as imperative children are given the chance to apply their mathematical knowledge and skills in different contexts. Teachers plan and sequence mathematics into all lessons, whether that be Science, History or even PE. It is desired that through stretching the boundaries of mathematics across the whole curriculum, the subject becomes real and meaningful to our children.

Times Tables Rockstars

The teaching of Times Tables is central to a wide range of mathematical concepts, hence why it is given such a high status in our school. Years 1-6 use the ‘Times Tables Rockstars (TTRS) resource to help increase both the accuracy and speed of their times tables. Each child has their individual log in and we have weekly battles between classes to see which class can be the most successful. TTRS is something which really engages our children and it has a hugely positive impact.

Mathletics

Mathletics is a new tool which Years 1-6 use in a variety of different ways. Each week, our children are set a differentiated online homework activity which consists of working through a lesson to understand and reinforce mathematical concepts and then a chance to work independently and apply what they have learnt. Teachers are able to view how the children have performed on Mathletics and can unpick misconceptions which is something that proves to be incredibly useful. Each year group hosts a Maths homework club too which children can attend in the school day should they wish.