Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary in most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education, therefore, provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Mathematics is a proficiency which involves confidence and competence with numbers and measures. It requires an understanding of the number system, a repertoire of computational skills and an ability to solve number problems in a variety of ways in which information is gathered by counting and measuring and is presented in graphs, diagrams, charts and tables.

Mathematics gives children a way of coming to terms with their environment.  Practical tasks and real life problems can be approached from a mathematical point of view.   Mathematics provides children with imaginative areas of exploration and study and gives them the materials upon which to exercise their mathematical skills.  These skills are a necessary tool of everyday life.  Mathematics should help children to develop an appreciation of, and enjoyment in, the subject itself; as well as a realisation of its role in other curriculum areas.