Developing playful mathematics in Key Stage 1

Bekah Gear, local leader of mathematics education (LLME) for East Midlands West Maths Hub, explores how a more play-based approach to maths can support children’s mathematical thinking, reasoning and understanding in Key Stage 1.

This blog post draws on research first published by the Chartered College of Teaching. Read the original case study, Developing a Play Based Pedagogy for Mathematics in Key Stage 1.

Why we needed to rethink KS1 maths

During the past year, in my role as a School Development Lead for East Midlands West Maths Hub, I’ve been working closely with a school whose KS1 team were trying to balance two competing realities:

• a growing commitment to play based learning
• a maths curriculum that still felt dominated by worksheets, pace, and procedural tasks.

It is a conflict that many schools will recognise. The classroom environment increasingly encouraged exploration, curiosity and independence, but maths teaching remained dominated by slides and learning driven towards completing a worksheet-led task.

Teachers were honest about feeling overwhelmed by the density of the scheme they were using, unsure how to adapt lessons, and uncertain about how play could support mathematical thinking. Children, meanwhile, talked about maths as something you do on paper, rather than something you experience.

This apparent conflict became the starting point for our inquiry.

Listening first: what children and teachers told us

Before making any changes, we spent time understanding what was really happening in classrooms. Through learning walks, staff voice and pupil conversations, a picture emerged:

• children relied heavily on adult direction
• mathematical talk was limited
• representations varied widely between classrooms
• worksheets were doing most of the ‘teaching’.

One child summed it up well: ‘Maths is when you finish the sheet.’

This diagnostic phase was crucial, because it helped us see that the issue wasn’t simply the scheme; it was how the curriculum was being interpreted, and how little space there was for children to build ideas through hands on exploration.

Building a shared pedagogical spine

To move forward, we needed a simple, memorable framework on which to base practice. Together, we developed a KS1 ’Pedagogy on a Page’. This simple framework captured how mathematical thinking could grow through play.

It centred on four modes of mathematical activity, inspired by Greg Bottrill’s (2018) work on play projects:

1. Make – concrete exploration
   Children handle, sort, group, build and manipulate objects to make sense of number and structure.
2. Build – spatial and structural reasoning
   Block play, construction, patterning and arrangement become vehicles for early algebraic thinking.
3. Draw – pictorial representation
   Children sketch, map, annotate and illustrate their ideas, bridging concrete experience and symbolic thinking.
4. Message – symbolic recording
   Only once ideas are secure do children move towards abstract notation, number sentences and written explanations.

Firstly, this structure gave teachers a shared language. It also helped shift the focus from task completion to providing a framework which encourages children to build and develop their mathematical understanding.

What changed in classrooms

As the approach became embedded, we began to see noticeable changes in both practice and pupil experience.

Children explained their thinking more confidently
Play created natural opportunities for talk. Instead of repeating procedures, children described grouping, sharing, patterning and comparing using their own words.

Representations became more connected
Teachers used manipulatives, drawings and symbols more deliberately. Children moved between them with increasing flexibility, mirroring the representational fluency described by Helen Williams in her book Playful Mathematics (2022).

Curriculum load reduced
By streamlining the KS1 curriculum, teachers felt more freedom to focus on depth rather than pace. One teacher said: ‘I finally feel like I’m teaching maths, not racing through it.’

Leadership capacity grew
The maths lead began to take greater ownership of the implementation process, planning collaboratively, anticipating staff needs and communicating a clearer pedagogical narrative. This was a powerful and unexpected outcome of the inquiry.

Classroom culture started to change
KS2 teachers began noticing the impact and started exploring how representational diversity and mathematical talk could strengthen their own practice. Change in KS1 was starting to influence approaches to maths across the school.

What this means for schools exploring playful maths

If you’re considering developing a play based approach to maths, here are the principles that made the biggest difference:

• Start with lived experience: listen to children and teachers. Their insights will tell you more than any scheme.
• Create a simple pedagogical spine: a shared framework helps everyone pull in the same direction.
• Prioritise representation: children need to experience concepts before they record them.
• Align provision with mathematical structures: continuous provision should reflect the week’s core concept, not just generic ‘maths areas’.
• Grow leadership capacity deliberately: coaching, joint planning and reflective dialogue matter as much as curriculum design.
• Use pupil voice as a diagnostic tool: children’s explanations reveal conceptual gaps that worksheets often hide.

Why play matters in maths

Play sits at the heart of how young children build mathematical understanding, not at the edges of it. It can be a powerful route into deeper mathematical thinking. When children build, sort, draw, imagine, negotiate and explain, they are doing the cognitive work that underpins number sense, structure, generalisation and reasoning. 

Play can give them the time, space and agency to make maths more meaningful. When teachers feel confident to adapt, interpret and innovate, the curriculum can become something that supports learning rather than constrains it.

This inquiry showed us that playful maths isn’t about replacing rigour in teaching; play can create the conditions for rigour to flourish.

Bottrill, G. (2018) Can I Go and Play Now? Rethinking the Early Years. London: SAGE Publications.

Williams, H. J. (2022) Playful Mathematics: For Children 3 to 7. London: SAGE Publications.