What is Counting Collections?
Counting Collections is an early mathematics approach to teaching young children about number. It is designed to develop children’s number sense (their understanding of number and quantity). It aims to support children’s counting, subitising, comparison of numbers and composition of number as well as their abilities to estimate and represent number (including understanding numerals). The Counting Collections approach can be used with Reception children and pre-school children.
Teaching mathematics through counting collections of objects is an approach that has been used in a number of countries including Australia and the United States.
How does Counting Collections work?
Teachers lead weekly counting collections sessions where children work in pairs or with an adult to count objects. The children choose a collection, decide how they want to count it, count it together and record the count on paper or mini whiteboards.
A counting library (boxes of objects) with different items to count and different sizes of collections is added to the classroom’s continuous provision to be used in the weekly sessions.
The counting library is accessed by children throughout the week during play.
Our experience
The Counting Collections programme developed at the University of Nottingham builds upon international work, which typically targets children aged between 6 and 8. However, our programme is specifically designed for young children.
A pilot project of Counting Collections in 2017-18 involved delivering a two-day version of the professional development programme in 21 early years settings with 600 children aged 2-5 years across the East Midlands (Gripton and Pawluch, 2021). In this small-scale research, Counting Collections supported the development of teacher subject knowledge, rooted in developmental progressions in number, which led to increased progress and interest in number from the children as perceived by teachers.
As part of the Education Endowment Foundation’s efficacy trial, in 2023-24, the Counting Collections programme was offered free to 85 selected Reception classes in three areas of England:
- North East (Durham, Sunderland, South Tyneside and surrounding area)
- East Midlands & South Yorkshire (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby, Derbyshire and surrounding area, plus Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster & Rotherham)
- South West (Cornwall, West Devon and surrounding area)
As part of the Education Endowment Foundation’s Early Years development programmes, between September 2023 and January 2024, the Counting Collections programme was offered free to eleven selected pre-school PVI settings in Birmingham.
Here two pre-school practitioners share their experience.
The teachers and practitioners who taught Counting Collections sessions took part in professional development in a group with other local teachers.
Counting Collections 