Maths in Reception
Key skills of counting, subitising, composition, ordering and comparing are threaded throughout the maths curriculum and get progressivley more challenging, following a developmental progression.
Why is there such a big focus on the early numbers?
It is important that children develop a really strong sense of numbers to 10. This will stand them in good stead for the maths that follows as they move through school.
This includes:
- Understanding the link between numbers and quantity (representing numbers in many ways)
- Investigating how quantities are composed of smaller parts (6 can be two 3s or three 2s or 4 and two ones or 5 and 1 etc.)
- Knowing how the numbers relate to one another and being able to compare and order them.
- Exploring how quantities change when you add more items or take items away.
The children may already be able to recite the number names to twenty and beyond but a sense of what those numbers mean develops gradually with repeated experiences in different contexts.