Teach-Early-Years-14.1

SARAH PHILPOT IS EYFS CURRICULUM LEAD FOR UNITED LEARNING With a little creativity, we can provide children with engaging ways to explore numbers and shapes, says Sarah Philpot … Let’s make maths more meaningful W hen I set foot in an early years classroom, often one of the first things I notice is the book being taught that week. It might be through themed role play provision or a hands-on small world area, but whatever form it takes, there is usually real engagement surrounding literacy topics that spills over into every area of the curriculum. Can we truly say this is the same when it comes to maths? How often have we been given a scheme of work to trawl through that chops and changes too quickly and that doesn’t align with the children’s interests or give them enough time to investigate their understanding? But it doesn’t have to be that way. When given a licence for creativity, we can make maths learning much more engaging for our children. THE BARRIERS Maths teaching is often viewed differently from other subjects. It can lack the creativity that comes so easily to other areas of the curriculum. Why is that? Well, it often comes down to practitioners’ own experiences. For a start, traditionally there’s been a focus on rote learning with maths – I’m sure we’ve all experienced memorising times tables and formulas. But a study of more than 3,000 adults by National Numeracy has also found that over a third (35%) said that doing maths makes them feel anxious, while one in five were so fearful that it makes them feel physically sick. Subconsciously, this bias could be transferred to practitioners’ delivery, meaning there is a reluctance to deviate from the “script” or scheme and question whether it is the right way to make maths meaningful and engaging for children. 46 Teachearlyyears.com