Algebra is often viewed as an abstract and symbolic component of the mathematics curriculum.

However, algebraic thinking begins as soon as students notice consistent change and seek to describe it. The Patterns and Algebra strand supports thinking, reasoning and working mathematically. Students have to extend their thinking beyond what they see to generalise about situations involving unknowns.

Algebraic notation enables us to represent problems in the form of equations (number sentences) that involve unknown quantities, and to solve them efficiently. This was exactly what our Year 7/8s were working on over the last few weeks, extending their knowledge and understanding of algebra and patterns.