Young children's rights to numeracy

In this paper I argue that children have a right to basic numeracy and that studies of adult numeracy suggest that this right is being denied to many in British schools. Because of the way that maths education discourses are structured, we do not have a separately defined discourse around numeracy teaching, and this has implications for young children's access to numeracy. I outline what a discourse of numeracy teaching would look like, and how it would relate to current maths education discourses. A developmental dimension in these discourses will improve both Early Years numeracy teaching and the curriculum development processes around British maths education. I use the term 'small' maths to define the differences between numeracy and basic arithmetic.