Early Years

In 2014, ACME's remit was extended from 5-19 to 3-19. This has meant that ACME spent some time drawing on Committee and Outer Circle expertise and the expertise of wider stakeholders to scope out the early years mathematics landscape and identify key shared concerns.

In February 2016, ACME convened a roundtable with the early years and mathematics community to gain a better understanding of the issues that arise in policy and practice within this the policy space and also to bring the early years and mathematics communities together. The session was a success and new relationships were established and shared priorities identified. The notes can be found here.

In May 2016, ACME hosted a follow up seminar on early years professional development. The group discussed key issues and challenges in professional development and potential opportunities in terms of research, policy and programmes. The notes from the session can be found here.

The baton for the next meeting was taken on by 4Children, which hosted a meeting in July 2016. During that meeting the group also agreed to devise a set of recommendations for mathematical resources, which is now complete and can be found here on the the Foundation Years website.

For more information on early years mathematics, the briefing paper from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Maths and Numeracy is a useful starting point, as is a Maths Memos blog post from ACME member Dr Sue Gifford.

If you are interested in finding out more information about next steps in early years mathematics get in touch by emailing acme@royalsociety.org.