Join me on Tuesday 25th May OR Thursday 27th May 7-8pm for an evening of Marvellous Maths ideas that have really worked in my Reception and Year 1 settings. I would love to share lots of context based and hands on mathematical opportunities that have led to maths success! 

Recent DfE changes have been a pleasant surprise really! Yes – It is still a statutory requirement that the whole of the curriculum is taught but the priority now seems to be those ‘connections’ that children make when progressing through the skills at their own pace and on their own journey. The DfE want to bring “A greater coherence by exposing core concepts in the NC and by demonstrating progress” from year group to year group.  Greater coherence in any educational area is music to my ears.  Children will make links between what they HAVE learnt, to what they ARE learning and will then hold on to those priceless ‘nuggets of knowledge’ and fundamental maths skills that they will (hopefully) keep with them when they revisit that same mathematical area next time.  It’s kind of like a “Tips & Tricks” memory bank that is repeated and revisited. What is important?  Exploration, explanation, mastery approaches, capturing those light bulb moments, fluency, internalising visual representations and practising mathematical processes along the way – before you move onto to the next step. 

I love starting a maths lesson by pulling the prior knowledge to the forefront of the children’s minds and discussing the skills that we may use that day; making predictions, celebrating progress and putting our ‘fists up’ to those misconceptions that have forced us to make wrong turnings. But it’s ok to get lost in maths. No one is perfect. It’s a life skill to make mistakes. We learn from them!  Children are inquisitive; they look for patterns and suggest solutions.