Children develop a love of mathematics through games, songs, rhymes, and play using concrete manipulatives. There is a focus on the following counting principles; one to one correspondence, stable order, cardinal principle and subitising. Children’s fine manipulative skills are a focus to develop 1-1 correspondence so that children count each object only once.

Children working at the age and stage of a two year old focus on numbers 1 to 3 and in when they are working at the stage of a three-four year old, they focus on numbers 1 to 5 as part of our mastery approach.

Children working at Reception age and stage of development follow the White Rose Maths curriculum. This approach focuses on maths mastery - children are taught to fully grasp topics, not just scrape the surface, so by the time they move on to more advanced lessons they have a deep understanding of foundational concepts. As a result, children benefit from improved learning retention and they develop mathematical understanding, reasoning and problem-solving abilities that will stay with them for life and also have fun! 

' 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.' 

EYFS Statutory Framework, 2023.