Numeracy and Mathematics Guest Blogs
Kirsteen Blackhall and Nicola Crowe describe their improvement journey in providing mathematical provocations for play in their early years setting.
ELC Maths Improvement Group
Kirsteen Blackhall and Nicola Crowe
Methven Primary School Nursery
Perth and Kinross
www.methvenprimary.org.uk
From February to May 2023, Methven Nursery were part of the Perth and Kinross Early Maths Improvement Project. This involved 18 ELC settings from across Perth and Kinross coming together to work on a collaborate improvement project which focused on Early Maths. The project involved participating in online and face to face sessions with the Perth and Kinross Early Years Central Team and Tayside’s Education Scotland Numeracy and Maths officer. During the sessions themes such as planning for improvement, analysing data, and ways to create numeracy rich interactions, experiences and spaces were explored. Time was given for the settings to share practice with others and follow up tasks were designed to support participants to consider the next steps within their own establishments. A sharing practice event took place in May with the settings sharing their journey with a range of senior leaders and fellow project participants.
This blog summaries the journey that staff at Methven Primary School Nursery took during the project.
As we analysed our March tracking data we identified a group of learners who all scored a 1 on the Perth and Kinross ELC tracker for Patterns – ‘recognises and explores patterns in the environment and is developing an ability to create their own.’
We then set our aim based on this evidence:
Aim - By May 2023, all identified learners will be observed to be making progress in recognising and exploring patterns in the environment and developing an ability to create their own repeated pattern. (Baseline – all currently 1 on the tracker)
In order to support learners reach this aim, a number of change ideas were implemented across the setting with associated measures.
Change idea 1 - Create Maths bags for home to give further opportunities to explore and create repeated patterns.
Record the number of bags being taken home and by whom.
Record parent feedback in jotters within bags.
Change idea 2 - Further develop Maths area to create an enabling environment where children have daily access to mathematical resources including 2D shapes and 3D objects, rulers, calculators, scales, spinners, money.
Before and after auditing using the Perth and Kinross Experience and Spaces Document and relating photographs.
Frequency sampling of children accessing the maths area at regular intervals e.g every 20 mins
Change idea 3 - Provide pattern provocations on Maths Table / Tuff Spot for children to explore relevant to the aim.
Frequency sampling of children accessing the provocations at regular intervals e.g every 20 mins
Recording child’s voice during periods of engagement with the provocation.
As part of our intentional planning each fortnight we identify a focus area for Maths and Numeracy based on our tracking data, gaps in learning and children's interests. At the end of Term 2 we chose Pattern and Relationships. We used our own ideas and ideas from the PKC Maths Padlet resource cards to permeate pattern throughout the nursery. Some of the experiences on offer for the children included creating repeated patterns using different types and colours of transport.
Impact - This was a challenging and problem solving experience for some of our learners as it allowed them the opportunity to make patterns either by colour or type or both.
Patterns were explored in the environment and observed in both children's and adult's clothing. Here a group of children are exploring the patterns in a variety of pairs of socks.
Impact - we have observed children using the language of pattern in their play and during focussed activities. One child commented "I've got a pattern on my pants!" when looking at the patterns of socks.
Through frequency sampling measures we were able to identify that some of our identified learners were not choosing to engage in the spaces and provocations that were on offer to them. Knowing the children as individuals, we decided to develop more sensory based experiences which we knew would entice them in to play and discover.
Impact - One popular activity for all learners was to create a fruit kebab for snack which had a repeated pattern.
Some other sensory pattern experiences that the children had the opportunity to explore were using their bodies to make patterns through clapping their hands or stamping their feet with the use of musical instruments to make a pattern.
Exploring patterns in the environment took place both indoors and outdoors. A group of children went on a pattern walk and used their observations skills to identify a range of patterns on fences, walls, roads, vehicles etc
Impact - nearly all children in this group were able to identify pattern in the environment.
Maths bags were created to give further opportunities to explore and create repeated patterns at home. An evaluation form is included within each Maths bag along with some information about the aims of the bags.
Prompt cards were created for each of the bags. These give parents / carers some useful information about how best they can support their child with the bag including - starting points for questions, outlining key skills in mathematical thinking and how to play the game.
Maths bags have been well received so far by children and their parents and we are pleased to see that some parents have taken the time to give us positive feedback about their child's learning at home. We plan to continue sending these home weekly as an outcome of the project.
The measures that we put in place to further develop our Maths area included auditing the area before and after using the Perth and Kinross Experiences and Spaces document. We RAG rated the area during Term 1 and the staff team as a whole rated the area amber. Following this rating exercise staff worked together as a team to make changes and additions to this area through the introduction of additional resources and provocations as identified in the document. At the end of term 3 we repeated this exercise and were pleased to be able to rate the area green due to the improvements that had been made.
We decided to use frequency sampling as a measure to determine how often the children independently were accessing the maths area at certain points during Term 1 and Term 3.
Impact - Although there has been a slight increase in the number of children accessing this area we have observed that far more children to choose to engage when a member of staff is present. This provides further information for informing ongoing improvement and change.
A further measure put in place was to record children's voice during both their free flow play and planned experiences.
Impact - Children were observed to be applying the language of pattern during our pattern walk (planned experience) and aspects of maths and numeracy are often noted throughout the day through free flow play and an additional unintended outcome.
Being part of this maths improvement initiative has given all our practitioners the opportunity to take a more in depth look at the progress our learners have made in maths and numeracy through our tracking data. Prior to us being involved in this project our team did our tracking for each child in November, March and May and then handed it to Senior Management Team to complete the spreadsheets and analyse the data. Whilst we as a team did have discussions about where we felt there were gaps in our children’s learning and progression (in all areas of their learning and development), at no time did we sit down and analyse the final data together. This was new to us as an ECL team, but a great opportunity for us to gain a better understanding and more comprehensive picture of the trends and patterns and ultimately gaps in our maths and numeracy for all our children.
Armed with this information, opportunities for staff to discuss how to facilitate a high-quality learning environment to support universally and identified children to progress in certain areas of maths (patterns) took place.
Using the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) model for improvement appraoch helped us set our aim.
By the end of the project, our aim was achieved, and all identified learners made progress. Four learners moved from a 1 to a 2 on the tracker and one learner moved from a 1 to a 3. It was also observed and tracked that all identified learners made progress across most areas of Maths and Numeracy between March and May.
Staff are now able and feel confident to use this approach to set similar aims in other areas of our children’s learning.
‘The failure isn’t in the tracking but in the application of that tracking into some meaningful discovery or change’ (Koester, 2017). Being able to understand the importance behind the data has had the biggest influence on our practice and will continue to inform and influence our practice to ensure the best possible outcomes for our children going forwards.