Key Stage 2 Numeracy

Key Stage Two is the legal term for the 4 years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales, known as Year’s 3, 4, 5 & 6, when pupils are aged between 7 and 11. The term is applied differently in Northern Ireland where it refers to pupils in Year’s 5, 6 and 7.

Numeracy plays a large part in a child’s education and is reflected in many of the subjects they will learn in school.  These subjects include;

-English

-Maths

-Science

-Design and technology

-Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

-History

-Geography

-Art and design

-Music

-Physical education

-Religious Education (Although parents are permitted to withdraw their own children from this education if they desire). 

In addition to R.E, schools are advised to teach personal, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship, together with at least one modern foreign language.

Numeracy is the ability to reason with numbers and other mathematical concepts.  Someone who is numerically literate should be able to manage and respond to the mathematical demands of life.  Aspects of numeracy include number sense, operation sense, computation, measurement, geometry, probability and statistics.

The UK Department for Education and Skills described numeracy as being an expertise which is developed mainly in mathematics, but also in other subjects, and is more than an ability to do basic arithmetic. It involves developing confidence and competence with numbers and measures and requires an understanding of the number system, a range of mathematical techniques, and a penchant to solve quantitative or spatial problems in a range of contexts. Numeracy also demands understanding of the ways in which data are gathered by counting and measuring, and presented in graphs, diagrams, charts and tables.

Mathematics is a core subject in a child’s Key Stage Two education and there is some evidence that humans may have an instinctive sense of number skills.

Jean Piaget who was a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children found that children's concepts of number and quantity developed with age. For example, if an experimenter empties liquid from a short wide container into a tall thin container, a five-year-old typically thinks the quantity of liquid increases, whereas a ten-year-old realizes that the quantity of liquid stays the same.

In studies of gender and choice of science careers, age is also found to be related with gender. Thus at some ages, girls perform better with science subjects like mathematics, and at other ages, boys.

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