At Shotley Bridge Nursery School we constantly strive to be at the forefront of Early Years provision, aiming to ensure all of our children leave us with the best possible foundation of holistic skills which will help them go on to reach their full potential. Within this, we continuously study developments in research and theory across the sector and embed changes within our practice that reflect our findings. We are lucky enough to be working closely with Debby Shaw from the County Early Years Team in adapting our approach to mathematics provision in line with new, forward-thinking research. Mrs Bainbridge initially attended several training sessions based upon the concept of ‘what comes before counting’ which explored the depth of understanding around numbers 1-3 that children should be supported to develop before considering introducing higher numbers, sequential counting and numerals. This was then relayed to practitioners and slight adaptations to practice were made. Building from this, Debby has since delivered in-house training to the whole Nursery team to ensure we can cater our provision to help children build the strongest foundation of mathematics skills.

“Through unstructured exploration, we foster the development of imagination & creativity”

– Beth Rosenthal Davis

Heuristic Play is an opportunity in which children are presented with a wide variation of natural and everyday objects and containers and allowed to explore freely, without unnecessary adult intervention. At SBNS we are very passionate about the value of Heuristic Play and the varied, endless benefits it offers. Within our provision we offer a wide range of loose parts with the intent of promoting children’s creativity and imagination. By providing an array of open-ended resources that do not have a set use or purpose, we are given an insight into children’s true thoughts and curiosities when they implement their own ideas for use. These glimpses into the way the children’s minds work allow us to then adapt our environments to promote further exploration of curiosities. On Thursday 21^st September Debby supported practitioners in hosting a Heuristic Play session in the Nursery hall, which children from The Rivers and The Bridges accessed. The intent of the session was to observe the way children naturally develop mathematics skills when the provision available supports this, varying from our usual Heuristic Play opportunities that happen within the rhythms of the Nursery day.

During the session practitioners were available for children to invite into their play and to support as required, but predominantly stood back and observed the (often maths-related) magic that unfolded. Children used the items in a variety of ways but the development of lots of maths, and pre-number concept, related skills was observed. The children categorised according to similar properties, positioned items in particular ways, explored the concept of capacity, recognised the need for more or less when filling spaces or containers, and demonstrated an array of critical thinking skills alongside extremely high levels of engagement. It was a pleasure to witness as children sought practitioner support in achieving their intentions when they were beyond their own reach, but simultaneously thrived on the independence the opportunity offered.

We look forward to developing further on this journey with Debby, embracing all the opportunities we are presented with to ensure we continue to provide the absolute best for the children in our care.