Research School Network: The Importance of Maths in an Early Years Setting Children need access to authentic, real life resources that they can use to explore their growing mathematical understanding.

Steph Watson, one of our Research Associates at Billesley Research School, draws on her first-hand experience in telling us why introductory maths is so vital for Early Years pupils.

When considering Early Years education in school, Maths is not always the first factor that springs to mind. It is usually supplanted by considerations such as developing coordination and communication abilities through play and physical activity.

And, make no mistake, these are all vital!

However, let’s not forget the importance of Early Mathematics and the impact this has on our children.

The Department for Education states that, ​‘high quality early education and childcare, delivered with love and care, can have a powerful impact on young children. The evidence is clear that a good start in these early years can have a positive effect on children’s development, preparing them for school and later life.’ (DfE, 2013: 13)

This statement is backed up by a number of studies. These have shown that accessing early educational settings, such as nursery and reception classes, and receiving a good quality provision of education, in particular, can have a positive effect on the educational, cognitive, behavioural and social outcomes of children, both in the short and long term (e.g. Barnes and Melhuish, 2016; Lloyd and Potter, 2014;Sylva et al., 2010).

So how does Mathematics fit into this?

Early Maths sets the foundations for learning, as Mathematics gives children a range of transferable skills they can use in everyday life including problem solving, reasoning, explaining and justifying.

To achieve the desired skills and outcomes, the learning environment needs to support children’s growing mathematical understanding and also provide experiences which focus specifically on aspects of Maths learning.

Children need access to authentic, real life resources that they can use to explore their growing mathematical understanding. For example:

Measuring tapes

Sand timers

Measuring jugs

Spoons

Real coins

Clocks

It is vital that they have access to substantial, practical and playful items that they will also come across outside of the classroom. It makes the concepts much more ​‘real’ to the children and they can build up those connections incidentally when they are exposed to them outside the school environment.

​‘Mathematics plays a key role in a child’s development. Very young children are naturally curious, noticing differences in quantity and the shape of objects, and use early mathematical concepts when they play’ – Professor Becky Francis, Chief Executive – Education Endowment Foundation, 2020.

Having such curious minds, physical objects that they will be aware of, or exposed to, will strengthen their links to a number of different mathematical skills and concepts.

By way of example, from my own experience, if you give children a variety of different clocks, they will use them to reinforce their number recognition, the process of counting up and down. I even had one child comparing the shapes of them! Every child will have a significant variation in their mathematics experiences when playing, therefore encouraging communication, peer, and adult supported play are all vital to enhance each child’s experience and learning.

One important factor of teaching Maths throughout all years is establishing the vocabulary, and Early Years is no exception. It is important to allow children to use their own informal language to describe a maths concept, as it offers practitioners the chance to build on the child’s knowledge through conversations and modelling the correct use of mathematical language and vocabulary which can be used to identify any misconceptions.

How many times have you heard a child, sharing toys or sweets, say: ​“one for you, one for me” or ​“They have more than me!”. The language that the children use can show us how much they understand about sharing. To reinforce this, repeating positive mathematical language back to them is beneficial: ​“Well done you have shared the counters between you and David” or ​“Freya has one more than you, so you need to have one more to be equal.”

Maths underpins so much of a child’s development so taking the time to teach children the subject is just as important as exposing the children to it through play.

So what could this teaching look like?

Improving Mathematics in the Early Years and KS1 guidance (EEF, 2020) says:

Ensure children understand the links between manipulatives and the mathematical ideas they represent

Ensure there is a clear rationale

Encourage children to represent problems in their own way

Use manipulatives and representations to encourage discussions

This guidance tells us that children need to know what they are doing, so sharing your outcome or learning objective with them is important. This can be in child-friendly language, such as: ​“Today we are learning how to add one more”. Encouraging children to show you how they would do something, and to converse with each other when they are doing so, will support them in representing it in their own way and working through it in their own heads.

Finally, having manipulatives and representatives such as cubes or beads are vital for the children to physically move. Modelling this process to the children first, then completing it together before they have a go independently, will help them to see exactly what is expected of them.

Mathematics and the skills that children can learn through the subject support them in almost every part of life, so Early Maths, in particular, is evidently vital to a child’s development and should be made a priority in the classroom.