Unifying Mathematical Representations: Bridging EYFS to Year 6 in the Maths Curriculum

At Mr Bee Teach, we’re working on something really exciting – a brand-new maths curriculum designed for children from EYFS all the way through to Year 6. It’s not just about teaching numbers and formulas, but about helping children truly understand the maths behind what they’re learning. The goal? To make maths meaningful, connected, and easy to remember.

Why Representation Matters

One of the big ideas behind this curriculum is how we represent mathematical concepts. Think about it like this: If a child sees different, random models for maths problems without understanding the links between them, they’re going to have a harder time remembering what they’ve learned. That’s where we’ve put in the hard work – making sure that the tools and models we use show the structure of maths, not just the answers.

Take the number line, for example. It’s not just for counting in the early years. As children move through school, they’ll see it again and again in different contexts – for place value, the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), and even fractions. The number line becomes a familiar friend, helping them spot the links between these different ideas, rather than seeing them as isolated topics.

A Curriculum with Connections

One thing we’ve been really mindful of is making sure the curriculum feels like one continuous journey, rather than a series of unconnected lessons. We’ve designed it so that the maths children learn in EYFS smoothly builds into what they’ll do in Year 6.

For example, when young children start using the number line to count, they’re also laying the foundation for using it to solve complex fraction problems later on. It’s not about reinventing the wheel every year, but building on what they already know in a way that feels natural and logical to them.

Helping Children Remember

We all know how frustrating it can be when children seem to forget what they learned last term, let alone last year! But with this new curriculum, we’re trying to solve that problem. By using the same visual models and representations across different areas of maths, children revisit and reinforce what they’ve already learned.

For instance, rather than just learning about place value one year and then moving on, they’ll keep encountering it in new ways as they progress. This helps embed those core ideas in their long-term memory, making it easier to recall and apply them when faced with more challenging problems down the line.

Making Maths Accessible for Everyone

At the heart of this curriculum is the belief that every child can succeed in maths if they’re given the right tools. By making mathematical structures clear and focusing on how different ideas connect, we’re giving children a roadmap to follow. Maths stops feeling like a series of random tasks and starts to make sense.

This curriculum is about more than just getting the right answers – it’s about helping children understand how and why the maths works. And once they understand it, they can access it with confidence.

We’re looking forward to rolling out this curriculum soon and seeing how it transforms children’s experiences with maths. Stay tuned for more updates, and as always, thank you for being part of the Mr Bee Teach community!