Teach-Primary-Issue-19.2

www.teachwire.net | 37 Jo Austen is a lead practitioner in East London, focused on teaching and learning. His book on maths teaching, Small Numbers, Big Ideas (£16, John Catt Educational), is out now. @joausten @mathswithin10 @joausten Essential vocab Being able to accurately describe different spaces includes using some specific terminology, including: Location Shape Properties Movement Orientation Composition Decomposition Symmetry Scaling Perspective F EATURE S MA THS or a given character. There is a navigational aspect to the geography curriculum in both Key Stage 1 and 2, too, with opportunities to use compass directions and to describe the location of something with relation to something else (“The palace is to the west of the lake but to the east of the forest”). Finally, part of the computing curriculum requires children to solve navigational challenges, applying logical thinking to create algorithms and debug codes that aren’t working yet. 5 Improve subject knowledge Teaching maths well is not easy, and primary teachers are not always subject specialists. If we improve our own knowledge of spatial reasoning, we can take advantage of spontaneous ‘teachable moments’ that occur throughout the year. We’re much more likely to ask children “Do you think we’ll all fit on that bus or should we wait for the next one?” on a school trip, or challenge them to pack a box of resources as efficiently as possible, if we ourselves have a secure understanding of why these things are useful learning opportunities. The best resource I know for improving EYFS and KS1 teachers’ pedagogic subject knowledge in this area is the Early Childhood Maths Group’s Spatial Reasoning Toolkit, which is free to download from their website ( tinyurl. com/tp-SpatialToolkit ). The NCETM has a very useful Early Years progression chart for shape and space, which is also free to download at tinyurl.com/tp-ShapeSpace Teachers of older primary children should start with these too, before delving into their year group’s section of the NCETM’s Primary Mastery Professional Development materials ( tinyurl.com/tp-NCETMcpd ) , which offer clear, detailed explanations of each ‘small step’ of learning. TP