In Early Years, we aim for all children to develop firm mathematical foundations in a way that is engaging, and appropriate for their age. 

Early maths teaching at St Thomas follows the teaching for mastery approach.  We make use of guidance from the NCETM and the recommendations from the Education Endowment Fund's (EEF) research into improving mathematics in the Early years and KS1. 

Our five key principles:

• Continuously developing teachers and early years practitioners’ understanding of how children learn maths
• Dedicated time for children to learn mathematics and integrate mathematics throughout the day
• Use of manipulatives and representations to develop understanding
• Making sure that maths teaching builds on what children already know
• Providing high-quality targeted support to help all children to learn

We want children to: develop mathematical language through using sentence frames to reason and discuss, acquire mathematical understanding through using concrete and pictorial learning, develop mathematical thinking and fluency through making connections and reasoning including through the use of story, use pattern to make and share connections.

Our six key concepts of early mathematics teaching are:

Cardinality and Counting

Comparison

Composition

Pattern

Shape and Space

Measures