Early Maths at Grappenhall Heys

We offer our children in Nursery and Reception an exciting maths curriculum that embeds key knowledge and vocabulary and offers opportunities for them to apply their understanding.

N​ursery Maths

W​e encourage all children to engage in fun, active maths play and that starts right from Nursery. We use Master the Curriculum and the Development Matters non-statutory guidance to plan our Nursery maths offer. Maths activities, manipulatives and play opportunities are a vital element of our indoor and outdoor continuous provision. There is a big focus on numbers to 5 in Nursery and the children learn maths with links made to all other elements of the EYFS curriculum.

R​eception Maths

Developing a secure understanding of early mathematical concepts is crucial and all children need time (structured and unstructured) to explore manipulatives; to represent problems in their own ways, and to communicate their mathematical thinking. We encourage children to investigate maths within meaningful contexts – such as carefully selected games, stories and daily routines and provide the children with mathematical opportunities in a way that makes sense to them. Our pupils love maths and we work hard to ensure that they are engaged and motivated in both guided and independent learning. Mathematical questioning is introduced at this early stage and children are taught to reason and make connections, to respond and provide solutions. The success of this approach is evident in the readiness of our pupils’ entry into Key Stage 1.

Our children learn through frequent, regular and meaningful mathematics experiences both within and beyond the maths lesson. Opportunities are provided for daily independent exploration and for children to practise their developing skills and knowledge so that they improve their competence and confidence in applying them. We use our outdoor environment to encourage children to spot shapes and numbers naturally and to explore, investigate and build dens, which can help children explore shape, space and measure.

 

 

 

In addition to numeracy knowledge, our early maths support helps skills such as problem solving, understanding and using shapes and measure and developing their own spatial awareness. It helps children to recognise, create and describe patterns, which is essential for early problem-solving skills.

O​ur school has adopted NCETM's Mastering Number programme in Reception to support in the learning and teaching of maths and to promote number sense. The children also have regular adult-led maths lessons based on White Rose Maths planning which allows us to focus on the shape, space and measure elements of the curriculum in addition to number.

The children and staff regularly update a maths learning journey display so that the children can keep looking back at what they have previously learnt and what they want to remember.

From the Summer term, o​ur Reception children use Numbots as an introduction to learning key maths facts. Please see your child's teacher if you don't have a login for this.

In Early Years, the EYFS Statutory Framework (click here) is used for planning and assessment alongside and Development Matters document (click here) as guidance. Pupils experience a wide range of activities linked to number and shape, space & measure. Activities are planned for children to play, explore, actively learn and develop their thinking skills in maths through focused, continuous and enhanced provision. In Early Years, pupils will also engage in structured mathematical activities – these may be adult-led sessions or independent activities.

Active learning, outdoor learning and opportunities for guided and independent play in our continuous provision are key components used in the delivery of our Early Years maths curriculum.

C​lick here for a knowledge organiser to support children as they leave Reception and prepare for Year 1.

Watch this video to see how mathematical thinking is embedded in our Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.