Monday
I am a reception teacher and Foundation Stage co-ordinator at Birkby Infants and Nursery School in Huddersfield. Our early years department has experienced phenomenal changes in policy and practice since the appointment of our head six years ago.
It's 8am and I am frantically trying to set up the unit and liaising with colleagues. Suddenly it's 9am and I'm greeted by my class of eager, bubbling five-year-olds and a deluge of parents. The week begins with a vengeance.
My focused maths activity this morning involves a bowl of Smarties. I show the children how to use a straw to suck up sweets and transfer them into another bowl. The number they collect within a minute they can eat! I encourage the children to talk about how many they have taken away, who has more/less, and record the subtraction sums on a white board. Wow! A boy struggling with numbers counts his ten Smarties with accuracy!
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