Guidance paper: Using and Applying Mathematics

This paper, produced by the National Strategies, provides guidance on how the using and applying mathematics strand of the 2004 Strategy’s revised Framework is structured and how it might be embedded in the primary mathematics curriculum.

One of the aims of the renewed Primary Framework is to give greater attention to using and applying mathematics. The using and applying mathematics strand has five themes and there is progression built into each theme.

The five themes are:
[b]Solving problems[/b]
[b]Representing[/b] – analyse, record, do, check, confirm
[b]Enquiring[/b] – plan, decide, organise, interpret, reason, justify
[b]Reasoning[/b] – create, deduce, apply, explore, predict, hypothesise, test
[b]Communicating[/b] – explain methods and solutions, choices, decisions, reasoning.

These themes relate directly to the three subdivisions of ‘using and applying’ in the National Curriculum programmes of study. The two themes, representing and enquiring, have been separated to emphasise their importance in mathematics at every stage. While identified separately, the five themes are very much linked.

When children solve problems or follow a line of enquiry they will be representing their ideas, using numbers, symbols or diagrams; they will be involved in reasoning and predicting and communicating their results, orally or in writing. The themes are intended to provide a tool to outline and track progression.