Maths is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils: 

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. 
• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language 
• can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions

Maths in Early Years involves exploring number, space, shape and measure both in and out of the classroom. We focus on embedding the early number skills to ensure children have a sound knowledge of this area. Children use play, stories and practical experiences to learn new concepts and practise their skills. 

In Key stage 1, Maths is all about ensuring pupils have developed confidence and mental fluency with whole numbers, counting and place value. This should involve working with numbers, words and the four operations, including with practical resources (for example, concrete objects and measuring tools).

At this stage, pupils should develop their ability to recognise, describe, draw, compare and sort different shapes and use the related vocabulary. Teaching should also involve using a range of measures to describe and compare different quantities such as length, mass, capacity/volume, time and money.

By the end of Year 2, pupils should know the number bonds to 20, their 2, 5 and 10 times tables and be precise in using and understanding place value. An emphasis on practice at this early stage will aid fluency.