Contents Welcome to Issue 16 of the Early Years Magazine.

Editor’s Entrée Find out about Family Learning, our re-launched Professional Development Calendar, the new Scottish guidance for the early years and more as we keep you up to date with what’s new.

Focus on…NCETM Primary Adviser Meet our new Primary Adviser and read about what she will be doing. Check out her PrimaryWatch blog and find out how you can get involved.

R4U - Research for You This month we bring you Ian’s updated article on place value. This is an area of concern since the Coalition Government is considering introducing place value into the curriculum much earlier.

Games Find out how to create a counting box for your classroom.

Case Study Read about Leicester’s ‘FUN TIME’ project.

Maths to share – CPD for you and your colleagues This month we bring you the last of the Shonette Bason programmes. Try out ‘full body weaving’ and explore some cheap, useful resources to excite and challenge children.

Contributors to this issue include Cherri Moseley, Pat Shoolbred and Ian Thompson. Image Credits Page header - Includes ball of wool photograph by litlnemo some rights reserved

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

Editor's Entrée

Children are pretty much the same the world over, so check out the new Scottish guidance for the Early Years – Pre-Birth to Three: Positive Outcomes for Scotland's Children and Families. You’ll find lots of great examples of shared practice across a variety of early years settings, covering a wide range of themes and even a useful set of illustrations (check out the terms of the licence for use) to download.

Have you seen the Family Learning section of the Learning Maths Outside the Classroom microsite? There is plenty here which is of interest to the early years. Check out Take Home Toys.

Our Professional Development Directory has been re-launched as the Professional Development Calendar. There are many exciting professional development opportunities for you to discover – both free and charged events are listed. Take a look and find outis happening in your region now

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We all know how important play is, so it’s good to see that this is the focus oNursery World’s next conference and workshop, on 30 March 2011 at The IbisHotel, Earls Court, London. For more details, check out the conference website.

You can tailor the day to suit your needs, so don’t miss out – Facilitate and Develop Effective Learning Through Play, could be just what you’ve been looking for.

Remember to explore the Primary Magazine each month. The writing team include the early years wherever possible, so it is always worth a browse. Issue 32 focuses on buildings, the Romans, counting sticks, Gaudí and other interesting subjects. Check back each month to see what’s new.

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

Focus on…our new Primary Adviser (Primary and Early Years) – Bev Kirk

What is an NCETM Primary Adviser? This is a new role within the National Centre. As with many new roles, it is yet to be fully defined and is likely to develop as times goes on. Part of Bev’s role will be to ensure that the primary and early years sectors receive a fair share of support. She will be helping to support primary schools who are aiming to raise standards of mathematics through partnership with other schools and will also be blogging as PrimaryWatch. The blog aims to bring you bite-size chunks of topical issues: what you need to know; the things you're likely to encounter; what changes can you expect... and more. This is an exciting time in the development of our education system, so it’s good to have a chance to contribute. Get in touch with Bev via her blog to tell her what you would like to read about. Bev introduces herself Bev is a deputy head in a large urban primary school just north of Manchester. Originally trained as a secondary maths specialist, she left the profession and worked for many years as an engineer and then in various businesses, coming back into teaching ten years ago. Now, with a range of experiences from Nursery to Year 6, she passionately embraces the “infant ethos”, understanding the need for child-centred learning, especially as her school is 75% English as an additional language and 46% special needs. As a research associate with the National College, Bev has been around the country looking at some of the best models of curriculum design. Involved with ACME, and by association, the minister for schools and his advisors, it has recently been possible for Bev to meet with ministerial groups and influence the Coalition plans for education reform. She feels it is vital that they know what life is like in schools and is very excited about the opportunities now to help improve communication between Westminster and the classroom. Recently the topic of ‘Collaboration’ has caught local attention and at the moment Bev is privileged to chair the Governor Monitoring Committee for a neighbouring school in Special Measures. She is the chair of governors for a nearby Surestart Children’s Centre and passionate about outcomes for young children and working with families to get the best start possible for those living in challenging circumstances. She works closely with her headteacher to make effective relationships with local schools and together they have taken their school to a position of leading local influence. Bev has two children: Abi is 20 and works for the Blood Transfusion Service; Jonathan is 18, studying biology at the University of Nottingham. In their spare time, Bev and partner Iain are renovating a dilapidated old house on the Moray Firth. Bev claims to be very good with a crowbar and sledgehammer, especially to the background sound of Iain’s impersonations of Lady Gaga!

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

R4U – Research for You

Know your place! Ian Thompson, Visiting Professor, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire For those teachers trained in the 1970s and ’80s, one of the major primary mathematics ‘gurus’ was Hilary Shuard, who in one of her books (Williams and Shuard 1970: 120) wrote the following:

...in the present curriculum the introduction of ideas of place value is probably postponed for too long for many children...

In this article, I shall argue that research conducted since this was written suggests that the opposite is more likely to be the case: most children are taught place value at too early an age and continue to be confused by it for a long time. The Practice Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2008: 67-68) does not actually mention ‘place value’, but the following ‘development matters’ certainly take children into the realm of two-digit numbers:

begin to count beyond 10; count aloud in ones, twos, fives or tens;

as does the ‘planning and resourcing’ recommendation to:

use a 100 square to show number patterns. We tend to forget that the concept of place value was a late arrival in the development of number notation – neither Euclid nor Pythagoras knew about it! The fact that it took such a long time for mankind to invent this important idea should signal the fact that people are going to find the concept difficult. What is meant by place value in this article is the standard, traditional interpretation which involves language such as ‘grouping in tens’, ‘the hundreds column’, ‘four tens and six units’, etc. 'Place value' is taken to mean the value assigned to a digit according to its position in a number. Research findings Thompson and Bramald (2002) interviewed 144 children from eight different primary schools (48 in each of Years 2 to 4) in an attempt to explore their understanding of place value. On the calculation 25 + 23, 63% used partitioning (treating 25 + 23 as 20 + 20 add 5 + 3) to find the correct answer. The researchers then used two ‘tried and tested’ interview questions, arguing that a child who might be said to understand the traditional interpretation of place value would be expected to give correct answers to both questions. 24% were correct on one item and 10% were correct on the other. However, only 4% (four per cent!) of the sample were correct on both. So, 63% understood (and could apply) partitioning, splitting numbers into multiples of ten and some ones, but only 4% showed any understanding of what is usually meant by ‘place value’. This suggests

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

that two different aspects of the concept are being assessed here: aspects I call ‘quantity value’ and ‘column value’. The former refers to the actual quantities represented by each of the digits in a given written number. For example, in 365 the 6 stands for 60 and the 3 for 300. However, a column value interpretation of 365 would be ‘3 in the hundreds column, 6 in the tens column and 5 units’ (see Figure 1).

The making of this seemingly fine distinction might appear to be little more than hair-splitting, however, consideration of the following mental calculation strategies and informal written computation procedures might suggest otherwise. Mental calculation Consider the following examples of mental strategies used by young children for each of the four basic operations, and think about the aspects of place value knowledge that are utilised in each case:

John, aged nine, (35 + 27): Well, 30 and 20 is 50... 5 and 7 is twelve... add 50 and 12 makes 62.

Sophie, aged nine, (54 - 27): 54 take twenty is 34... and 34 take 4 gives me 30... if I take the 3 from the 30 I've got 7, I mean 27.

Elizabeth, aged eight, (28 x 5): 140...I put 20 times 5 would be a hundred and 8 times 5 is 40... because I know tables and that's how I found out.

Emma, aged eight, (46 ÷ 2): 23... half of 40 is 20 and half of 6 is 3... plus 20 and 3 is 23.

Notice that:

John makes no mention of ‘carrying a ten’; ‘treating the 30 and 20 as 3 tens and 2 tens’; or ‘putting milk bottles on the doorstep’

Sophie does not use ‘borrowing’, ‘exchanging’ or ‘paying back’ Elizabeth does not ‘put down the 0 and carry the 4 Emma does not ‘divide’ the 2 into the 4 and then into the 6.

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

Informal written methods The following informal written algorithms are taken from the Primary National Strategy Guidance paper–Calculation (DfES 2007):

47 + 76 47 +76 110 13 123 563 - 241 500 + 60 + 3 563 -200 - 40 - 1 -241 300 + 20 + 2 leading to 322 38 x 7

38 7210

56266

81 ÷ 3

20 73 60 21

Each of these algorithms involves quantity value and not column value. Conclusion I believe that there is sufficient research evidence to invalidate the following statement from Williams and Shuard (1970: 120):

as soon as numbers greater than ten need to be written, the first introduction to the structure of our notation has to be made.

Not only do young children not need to know about place value at this stage, but having Early Years practitioners talk about ‘tens and ones’ when children are already struggling to make sense of the terrible teens (discussed in Issue 13 of the Early Years Magazine) is likely to cause some confusion. References DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families) (2008) Practice Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Nottingham: DCSF. (Accessed January 2011) DfES (2007) Guidance paper–Calculation (Accessed January 2011)

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

Thompson, I. and Bramald, R. (2002) An investigation of the relationship between young children’s understanding of place value and their competence at mental addition. Final report submitted to the Nuffield Foundation. (Department of Education, University of Newcastle upon Tyne). Williams, E. M. & Shuard, H. (1970) Primary mathematics today. London: Longman.

Games Mathematical play - creating a counting box for your classroom Why a counting box? I was recently asked to review the provision for PSRN in the Foundation Stage Unit of a local school. One area that clearly needed developing was the availability of stimulating resources which might lead to mathematical play. Equipment was provided but little attempt was made to engage children’s interest in it or promote its use. The range of equipment remained unchanged throughout the year. A counting box, if properly put together, could form a key part of a collection of items, constantly changing and constantly inviting children to interact with them in ways which would develop mathematical skills and understanding.

Sometime ago, I acquired a set of resources to support counting activities for use with trainee teachers specialising in early years education. The equipment is stored in a sturdy, clear plastic box. The sets of countables are contained in clear plastic jars with brightly coloured screw lids. There are six different sets: bells, sparkly stars, two different kinds of large colourful counters, small pompoms and toggles. Consideration has clearly been given to ensuring that the materials are durable enough to stand up to continuous use in the classroom. In terms of the quality of the resources provided, the box has proved to be good value for money and the

producers have tried to ensure that it would earn its keep by providing a booklet indicating a number of different ways in which it could be used to support a range of counting activities. It is essential that trainee teachers appreciate the importance of counting skills to a child’s future mathematical development. It is equally important that they are aware that these skills need to be developed in contexts which are enjoyable and promote a high level of interest and engagement on the part of the children. Sometimes, activities will need to take place with little adult support. Bearing these points in mind, it is clear that the resources which children are given to count will have a large role to play in supporting these outcomes. The resources in my set provide a good model of the level of quality and appeal needed. However, it seems to me that a collection of sets of items put together specifically for the purpose of motivating children to engage in counting activities is one which would also be of great value in a classroom. For this purpose, the resource I have would need a little adaptation, which might also have the advantage of reducing the cost. What goes in? With this in mind, I see the box in which it is stored as a major weakness. It would undoubtedly be hard-wearing, but would not engender the feelings of curiosity and imagination, which might tempt a child to open the box and interact with the contents. It would be worth acquiring a box with greater aesthetic appeal or, even better, with a character of its own, which could be used to inject humour into activities based on its contents. This raises the question of whether money could be better spent on buying a suitable container, or even, if money is short, time invested in making one. In this case, it would be possible to change the box periodically in order to refresh the children’s curiosity or reflect their changing interests.

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

The clear plastic jars in which the countables are stored do allow the children to see and, hopefully, be interested by the items inside. However, the screw tops might present a barrier to children using the resources independently. Less costly, less durable but more easily accessible containers would be worth considering. The items themselves would make a good initial impact on the children, but I wonder if the six sets would be sufficient to sustain that interest throughout the year. Again, it would be possible to obtain similar objects, even if less sturdy, which would allow the teacher to constantly ring the changes. A further advantage would be to extend the children’s experience of what can be counted. The contents could then be linked to a favourite story or to topic work, or made relevant to the season where appropriate. When setting out to engage children’s interest, it is important to bear in mind that they are all individuals and what will captivate one child will engender very little interest in another. For this reason, it would be advisable to collect varied items in order to match a diverse range of interests, particularly considering differences between boys and girls. The items provided with my counting set are, on the face of it, unisex, but I can’t help feeling that they might have a greater appeal to girls. This is something which a teacher could take account of when collecting resources for a particular class. The bumper sets of countables available from many educational suppliers could well be used with a counting box as they take a variety of forms. However, to be effective, they need to be presented to children in manageable numbers and not for such long periods of time that the children lose interest in them. Packing them into sets, to be placed in the counting box and changed at regular intervals, would achieve this. How would it be useful? Once put together, the counting box could become a familiar part of children’s mathematical experiences in the classroom. It could support a range of large and small group activities, maintaining children’s interest through their curiosity to see what the box contains. Opening the counting box to see what is in it this week could be an enjoyable experience leading to regular opportunities for counting together. The visual appeal of the items, selected for a particular group of children, would enable them to be used effectively to model a range of concepts for those children. However, the resource could also be used to promote independent learning if permanently accessible to the children. They would derive pleasure from interacting with the items, sorting and counting them. Given timely adult intervention this could lead to modelling and assessment of counting skills on an informal basis. The set I purchased is a resource which could be used extensively in an early years setting and exemplifies the need to provide young children with high quality and engaging resources if we want them to be active participants in learning. However, the potential exists for a teacher to customise this resource and make it into one which could encourage the development of counting skills by providing a constantly changing stimulus. This will then make counting a rewarding and enjoyable activity, which children will be eager to take part in, thus securing skills which will support their future progress in mathematics.

Case Study “Doing Fun Time has enhanced MY learning, as an adult. I have a greater understanding of the importance of speech, language, vocabulary and all the elements of communication.” (Foundation Stage teaching Assistant)

“All of the children who were in the Fun Time group are much more confident in the bigger group now.” (Foundation Stage teacher)

“It was amazing! [pupil name] doesn’t behave like that in the whole group! He was engaged, laughing, trying to speak and join in – I saw a different child.” (Foundation Stage teaching assistant)

Fun Time: social communication programme for children who find large group learning tricky 16+ Primary schools in Leicester participated in the Fun Time programme to look at imaginative ways of encouraging speaking and listening. The programme aimed to impact upon communication, language and literacy, and personal, social and emotional development; but many of the activities are also relevant to Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy, as is speaking and listening. A willingness to participate in discussion about what they think and feel; taking turns appropriately; listening to others; being able to wait for turns; looking at / making eye contact with the speaker; gaining self-esteem and confidence will all have an impact on a child’s ability to take part in any learning activities. Key points Point 1 A focused group activity for encouraging improved social and communication development in young children. Point 2 Creating group situations for young children who need TIME to think, respond and share ideas in an unstressed space. What is the crucial thing that made the difference? The small group, in a quiet place, with a grown-up with time to listen to each child.

Read about the Intentions; Teaching Approachers; CPD approaches, and Impact of the project on the National Strategies website. The Fun Time booklet, which describes the approach in detail, can be downloaded from the National Strategies website.

Kim's Game from the 'Fun Time' booklet

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

Maths to share - CPD for you and your colleagues This month we bring you the last of the Shonette Bason programmes, part of the Teachers TV series called the ‘Inspirational CPD Training’. If you’ve used the other programmes in the series to help you overcome the obstacles to using your outdoor area, then the children should be enjoying lots of learning experiences outdoors. In this last programme, Shonette shares ideas for cheap, fun resources. You will need clipboards with paper, one between two, and some balls of wool. Shonette believes in some short, sharp exercise to get everyone alert and energised, ready to learn, so begin the session with a few exercises. Either use your own or try these: Stand comfortably with feet apart. Use your arms like Shonette – use hands and arms as if you are a cheer leader holding pompoms; shake hands and flex fingers; use thumbs and fingers to point repeatedly down, up and stir. Clap getting louder, faster and explode. Give yourself a whole body shake before sitting down – energised and ready to learn!

Watch the programme together. Give each pair of colleagues a clipboard and ask them to list the resources either shown or mentioned:

pasta, dyed assorted colours paper plates instant mashed potato shaving foam porridge oats wool soap flakes

etc. etc. After watching the programme, put the clipboards to one side for the moment and have a go at full body weaving. Ask participants to have a go at being a spider weaving a web. Ask them to discuss the positional and directional language they could use to describe what the spider is doing – over, under, through, around, behind, in front, etc. As in the programme, shimmy the wool down to the floor. Keep the wool taut around ankles and spot shapes in the wool. Ask colleagues to discuss how the children could make a record of their own webs – chalk? String? What other webs or trails could they make? Ask

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

.www.ncetm.org.uk A Department for Education initiative to enhance professional development across mathematics teaching

colleagues to have a go at full-body weaving with groups of children and report back on how the children responded to the experience at the next meeting. Return to the clipboards. Compare lists and add participants’ own ideas. What else might be in Shonette’s top 20 tips? Discuss how you might use these relatively cheap resources to excite and challenge the children. Collate ideas and produce a summary sheet or small booklet to remind colleagues to try something different. Image Credits Page header - Ball of wool photograph by litlnemo some rights reserved