'Emergent Learners and Children's Mathematical Graphics', Institute of Education, April 2008

'Lots of ideas for resources and strategies for understanding children's mathematical understanding - very helpful! Unexpected gains included ideas for assessment and monitoring methods for looking deeper into understanding. Introduction to multi-modality. All really relevant - Thank you!'

'Very good examples of children's work and good reminder of resources to add to play areas. Unexpected gains: very relevant for nursery age - this is not always the case on some courses!'

'My expectations have been extremely well met. It was really helpful to have the taxonomy (flow charts) with samples of children's work. The Guidance on EYFS and individual target setting issues were helpful. An interesting, purposeful and informative day!'

'My understanding for early years - children's thinking for maths have been really well met. Unexpected gains for the day include how marks give meaning and purpose. Excellent references and further reading.', especially on drawing and the book on children's mathematical graphics.'

'I teach KS2, however, I had chosen to come on this course to help me understand mathematics in the early years. It was helpful and provided further explorations and reading. I will also pass on this information to my colleagues.'

'Very good introduction on how to promote and develop children's mathematical graphics! Very informative with plenty of real examples.'

'Calculating for Understanding: children's mathematical graphics', Medway, Kent. February, 2008

'This course was enlightening! It gave me lots of good ideas and made me re-think my whole approach to teaching mathematics. I shall use blank paper with the children and develop the graphics area for maths.'

'Really good ideas to change small elements of practice that will make a big difference to the children's mathematical understanding. I found the overview of modelling mathematics helpful and am much clearer about what I can expect children to do. Now I'm going to introduce lots of blank paper and share ideas and good practice from the course with colleagues.'

'A useful and inspiring day! It helped confirm my beliefs and will help me move on and develop. I''m going to develop my graphics area to include maths and make writing materials more accessible - especially to provide more opportunities for children to express their thinking.'

'A very good day. I am now going to stop worrying about symbols and support the children's development. I will share this with other Foundation Stage staff in our setting.'

'Thank you! I have lots of food for thought! I want to raise the profile of mathematics, particularly children's mark-making - and this was a really useful session. It was really thought-provoking and has made me really reflect on my own practice currently. I will feedback to the F.S. team and open up the 'office' area to include more opportunities for mark-making and to support mathematical thinking. I have a much clearer understanding of how to support and encourage mark-making in mathematics. I'm very keen to collect evidence of mark-making to share with colleagues - hopefully to impact on our whole school policy for calculations.'

'I found it interesting to learn about different ways children represent mathematics and the role of modelling. It was an interesting and pacy day. I feel that I rely too much on oral/verbal explanations and need to develop children's own written methods.'

'Brilliant! I feel I have learnt so much and feel confident to change my current practice. An excellent day and I like the emphasis on real-life contexts for mathematics. I would be interested in future sessions on children's early mathematical development in their play. I think practitioners new to the Foundation Stage would benefit from this - especially those who have previously taught KS1 or 2!'

'Excellent - really good ideas and thoughts to go away with and think about and share with others. It was a very useful course. I'm going to do a display on mathematical symbols such as '+' and '-' that children see in other contexts. This course would be valuable for Key Stage 1.Thanks!'

'Brilliant! Now I feel confident to encourage children to use blank paper to support their thinking and working out. An excellent day - informative and interesting. I will develop more interactive maths displays and support relevant calculations as they occur. I want to make children excited about maths so that they use it in their play.'

'Stimulating and lots to think about and try to put into practice - an excellent day! It made me reflect on the importance of doing everything possible to encourage children to explore their mathematical thinking on paper. I need to 'cascade' this to my T.A. and Y1 / 2 colleagues. I shall put writing materials in all play areas.'

'Excellent insight into how to support children in this aspect of maths. Excellent course - clear explanations and delivery of resources. It has made me think about my own over-use of worksheets and 'recording' for the sake of it - I'm going to encourage children to represent their thinking and cut down on worksheets. Please try to provide similar course for Key stage 1 and get pre-school settings away from worksheets!'

'Very interesting and would love to do my own research! The day really made me reflect more about children recording their own thinking. I want to encourage children in KS2 to use more open opportunities and 'put down something to show...' As SL in a Foundation & Primary School I want to build on children's experiences from where they are and redress the downwards pressure through SATs and level statistics!'

'Useful to think of opportunities for written representations. Good ideas for me as a subject leader to share with the whole school. I want to try out some activities with my class. This was extremely interesting and very useful - it made me reflect on the use of blank paper as a tool for young children. The day was well organised and friendly - I was inspired! Would love to hear more. Thank you!'

'Very good - the content of the day makes sense. The course made me reflect that I don't allow the children enough freedom to show their thinking on paper and I want to try to build in opportunities for children to represent their thoughts. This sort of course would be useful for the whole school (heads included).'

'Really useful, informative and lots of ideas and information. I liked the examples of children's work. This made me think about Y1 transition and I will link with the Y1 teacher if possible to see how the other year groups represent ideas in maths. More training on this would be very useful and help keep the momentum.'

‘Early Written Calculations’, Institute of Education - February, 2008

'My expectations were fully met. It was really helpful to also focus on the maths area and possibilities for adding maths resources to the graphics area. Lots to take in but all valuable.'

'I found the talk about progression in early written calculations (prior to standard calculations) very useful. Interesting discussions on the experiences of Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 teachers. I have found this course so useful. So much research and information on handouts - my expectations have been very highly met. Thank you so much! I'm full of new ideas now!'

'I was very interested to discover that all children could make graphic representations of calculations (in their own ways). The strong focus on written calculations was really valuable and the day has really helped my understanding and given me more confidence in teaching maths!'

'The journey through number, counting and calculations and how to interpret children's marks and gain meaning from them all became much clearer. It would be helpful to have more video footage.'

'The course was very useful and it was really valuable to see lots of examples of children's work. I feel I have greater awareness and understanding of Early Years maths. The course refreshed my ideas about creativity in maths which I had rather lost from working in KS2.'

'A very informative and interesting day - expectations exceeded! Focus on problem solving helped me a lot. I found the interpretation of the children's early graphics and the taxonomy really helpful and I have a clearer insight into children's written calculations and how to encourage them.'

'My expectations have been fully met - I have a much better understanding of the place of children's own mathematical representations in the Foundation Stage and of children's development. The shared discussions were really helpful.'

'As the maths subject leader currently working in Yr. 6, this has given me understanding about how things work in KS1. This will be really helpful for the calculations policy that I am writing. The day has given me an opportunity to think about what is wrong with everything we do in our school re; catch-up, filling -in gaps and putting 'sticking plasters' on their learning.'