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Mathematical Reasoning in Year 2

The programme Mathematical Reasoning in Year 2 was evaluated by the EEF. It had an impact of three extra months of progress on children's mathematical development. Become a Mathematical Reasoning expert teacher: take the online professional development course to prepare you to deliver the programme.

Programme overview

Mathematical Reasoning in Year 2 is a whole class research based programme developed by professors at University of Oxford in collaboration with teachers. This supplementary programme enriches the curriculum for all pupils by promoting children’s quantitative reasoning and number sense. Children learn about additive and multiplicative reasoning by thinking about relations between quantities. Number sense activities focus on the additive composition of number and the inverse relation between operations.

The 12 lessons are taught once a week as the maths lesson for the day, saving preparation time. The game-like activities at increasing levels of challenge are appealing to children. A TA should support implementation when children are split into groups for differentiation in the second half of the lesson.

Participate in the online course, receive the Teacher Handbook and Child Workbooks and get your children playing online maths games. The whole school can complete the online course and nurture children’s mathematical reasoning even more.

Watch the video about the programme and the online course by clicking on the image.

Programme benefits

Deepens teachers’ appreciation of children’s implicit knowledge and inspires children to use their own reasoning.

Training overview

An online professional development course is available to prepare teachers to deliver the programme. It includes videos by the Oxford University Reasoning First team, explaining the theory and aims of the programme and videos of teachers using the programme. It also includes activities to encourage reflection on mathematical ideas and on how children learn. 

The classroom teachers and the TA who will support delivery complete together five modules before starting to deliver the programme. Time spent on these modules is equivalent to a training day. A final compulsory module fosters thinking about sustaining and widening gains. Three optional modules are available to promote this reflection.

Upon registration, all printed materials are sent to schools and teachers are assigned to a group for joint participation in three live webinars (1.5 hours each), to provide support and discussion across schools.

The course is hosted by Oxford University; its creation was funded by the DfE and the EEF.

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