My planning changed enormously over the years; mainly because I found that what I had been given to use, didn't work (and frankly, did my head in 🤯)

This month in my 'Essentials' membership we're focusing upon 'Planning'; specifically 'Long' and 'Medium-Term'.

Each year I'd experience the same pro...

Lately I've noticed a significant rise in the number of posts where practitioners express their concern that their school has moved towards what is being described as a very 'formal' style of teaching with 4-5 year olds.

This is, and should be, of great concern to everyone involved not only in the ...

Would you like to know the BIGGEST mistake I ever made in teaching ‘Number Sense’ to my 3-7 year olds?

(And to be fair, I couldn’t have NOT made is because I hadn’t been given the right tools to teach any differently. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.)

I had always believed that it was counti...

(Click on 'download external images to see full post)

This term, teaching 'Numbers 1-5' is the focus in many of our most well-known Maths schemes. 

BUT what if you feel that your children already have this knowledge and are ready to move on?

From the posts shared on social media groups s...

So what is subitising and how does it differ to counting? 

These was a question I asked myself, for a long time.

Subitising is our ability to know ’how many?’ without counting.

It turns out that this is a skill we’re all born with. From a very young age we recognise certain patterns of ‘numbe...

It doesn't matter which Maths scheme you use (or whether you have a scheme in place or not), what matters is what YOU as the educator know (your subject knowledge) and understand (your pedagogy) about the Maths you're teaching and the ways it's most effectively taught.

Think of a scheme as like a r...

Can you relate?

You have to have been a practitioner yourself to understand the strange, wonderful (and often overwhelming) experience of spending time in your setting without the children.

For those of us who have an extended time away from the children over the summer break, one of the first thi...