Notice and Recognise

Progress examples to help you notice & recognise a child’s progress.

Use the phases of progress (outlined below) to help you notice and recognise a child’s progress.

With adult support children attune to the way maths thinking can be used to make sense of the world, such as the organisation of space, shape, pattern, and quantity. They experience and modify models designed by others e.g. combine, separate, move.
Children enjoy using their senses to explore different quantities in their world. With adult support they tune into the way measurement is used around them to describe, estimate, predict and compare.
Children are curious and with support, tune into maths language, symbols and representations. They begin to associate these with meaningful experiences and routine happenings.

Children explore and create new maths representations as they make sense of their world. They explore, shape, construct and deconstruct objects and materials through processes like arranging, e.g. making simple patterns and modelling with clay etc.
Children use everyday items to informally explore and enjoy quantities. They notice, recognise and puzzle about different amounts and shapes, e.g. during sand and water play.
Children begin to explore connections between people, places and things in their world using language, marks, pictures, symbols and constructions.

Children are intentional in their use of maths representations to create and design. They use and adapt a range of objects and materials to represent and connect with their ideas and designs, such as using clay to show small, medium, large.
Children independently and collaboratively explore quantity and use measurement purposefully, e.g. to predict, estimate, compare, test their thinking and solve problems.
Children create marks or symbols to show connections, relationships and repeating patterns. They use maths language, symbols, drawing and constructions to describe, explore, predict and investigate their environment with increasing complexity.

Children innovate and collaborate to plan, design, construct and adapt maths representations over time for a range of contexts and purposes.
Children initiate and carry out measuring activities for a purpose and use prediction, estimation and comparison to inform measuring decisions and solve problems. They may select and use informal measurement methods such as string to measure length, width or height.
Children innovate and collaborate to create and use maths symbols for a purpose to plan, design, and problem solve, such as creating drawings, plans, graphs and maps. They explore a range of ways to describe and represent patterns, relationships, number, shape, and space, including changes over time, such as creating a sequence of images. They use an increasing range of maths language to explain their processes and thinking.