Lutton St Nicholas and Gedney Church End Federation warmly welcome you to a

Parents’ information evening on:

Progression through Calculations

Can I do it in my head?

Do I need to use a calculator?

Do I need jottings ?

Shall I use a pencil and paper method?

Maths people

• What type of Mathematics person are you?

• Effortless • Hard worker • Struggler • Terrified

Aims

• To discuss the new calculation policy and new curriculum for Maths • To discuss the necessity for a calculation policy • To outline the contents of the calculation policy • To share the parents’ guide to calculations • To have a chance to discuss issues etc informally

Aims of the new Maths curriculum

• The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils: • become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately • reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.

• can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Calculations policy

• What is it and why do we have one?

• This ensures that there is a consistent approach across the school and from parents on how we teach our children to complete calculations. • All staff work from the same policy to ensure that regardless of class, your child will be moving onto the stage that is right for them and will receive the same teaching methods from all teachers and staff.

Times tables

• Times tables • Across the federation we expect the majority of pupils to achieve the following standards – • YR – Begin to count in steps – 1’s, 2’s and 10’s • Y1 – Be able to count in steps of 1, 2, 5 and 10 confidently to the 10th term • Y2 –To know their 2, 5, and 10 times tables (as times tables not as counting) previous as well) • Y4 – Consolidation and move onto the 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 times tables • Y5/6 – Consolidation and application • By ensuring this we are preparing the children to work competently.

The four stages

• Mental • Informal • Expanded • Efficient • Note that mental and informal methods will continue all the way through primary maths.

Skills of mental calculation

Mental methods will be established. These will be based on a solid understanding of place value in number and will include the following; • Remembering number facts and recalling them without hesitation (pairs, doubles, halves) • Using known facts to calculate unknown facts (6 + 6 = 12 so 6 + 7 = 13) • Understanding and using the relationship between addition and subtraction to find answers and check results • A solid repertoire of mental strategies to solve calculation (bridging, near doubles etc) • Making use of informal jottings such as blank number lines to assist in larger calculations • Solving one-step word problems by identifying which operation to use and explain their reasoning • Begin to present calculations is a horizontal format and explain the mental steps taken • Learn to estimate and approximate

Laying the foundations for addition and subtraction

• Addition and subtraction are taught together. Children learn that addition is commutative and subtraction is not. • Children learn to understand the principle of exchange (which is central to our number system) – 10 ones become one 10.

• Addition and subtraction teaching make the inverse relationship explicit.

• Children will learn the column method (efficient) for both addition and subtraction.

Addition and subtraction

• Mental • Informal 14 + 11 = 25 3 + 2 = 5 5 = 3 + 2 3 + 2 = 5

Addition and subtraction

Expanded Efficient

Laying the foundations for multiplication and division

• Multiplication and division are taught together. Children learn that multiplication is commutative and division is not • Children will ‘hook’ their mathematical thinking onto real life examples • Repeated addition and subtraction will be used to aid calculations • Explicit links will be made between division and fractions • Multiplication and division teaching make the inverse relationship explicit • Children will be encouraged to see patterns and the related nature of the times tables • Children learn to understand the principle of exchange (which is central to our number system) – 10 ones become one 10 • Children will explore remainders and will learn the efficient written methods for both multiplication and division

Multiplication and division

• Mental 12 shared into 3 equal groups 12 shared equally into groups of 4 • Informal

1 ÷ 2

I am 3 times as tall as you.

Multiplication and division

Expanded Efficient

Language

• Addition – increase, together, sum, more, plus, add, total, and • Subtraction – difference between, subtract, fewer, decrease, minus, take from reduce, take away • Multiplication – multiplied by, multiply, times table, times, product, groups of, lots of • Division – divided by, share, divide, share equally, divisible by, divide into, group, fractions

How can parents help?

• Count with their child • Play number games • Involve children in shopping activities • Involve children when taking measurements or weighing items • Take note of numbers in real life e.g. telephone numbers, bus numbers, lottery numbers etc • Give children opportunities to use money to shop, check change etc •Talking about the mathematics in football e.g. How many points does your favourite team need to catch the next team in the division?

• When helping their children calculate, use the method that they have been taught

How can parents help?

Please don’ts

• Many of us use maths ‘tricks’ and teach them to our children. Please do not teach your child the following ‘tricks’; • Just add a zero • Move the decimal point • Let’s do some sums • Rub it out and start again

Mental gymnastics

• Think of a number and keep doubling it. How • Face the person next to you and alternate!

• In two’s – one person recites all the numbers from 1 to 100 • The other person raises their hand at any number that can be divided by 3 or … • Divided by 4 or … • Divided by 3 and 4 or … • Divided by 5

You can use a number square to help you!

Parents’ booklet

• Contains the following – • Information on the new curriculum • Some information on mental maths and the importance of this skill throughout primary school • An overview of expected progression within the four types of calculation • Detailed examples and methods for the four types of calculation • Real life contexts • Useful websites

Useful websites

• www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/ Really good resources and games for all areas of numeracy that you would expect from the BBC. • Also includes other Primary subjects.

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/interactive.htm

An excellent school website offering links to games to help children with speed of recall for • times tables.

www.topicbox.co.uk/browse.php?subject=Maths A huge site that is easy to navigate around. All topics of numeracy are well organised so you can • easily find what you’re looking for. Also includes other Primary subjects.

www.learningclip.co.uk

You will need to register for free but contains lots of activities and printable worksheets that • www.ictgames.com/resources.html

Scroll down to themes and locate the easy to navigate numeracy areas. Each game has a clear • learning objective and suggested year group. Excellent games!

www.counton.org

Huge amount of games and puzzles. Also click on the ‘links’ tab to find lots of links to other • maths sites.

www.mathplayground.com/games.html

An enjoyable American site that has lots of numeracy games.

o o o

Key Messages

To develop written calculation strategies, children need: Secure mental strategies from YR.

A solid understanding of the number system.

o o o Visual images including number lines and arrays.

Experience of expanded methods to develop understanding and avoid rote learning.

Secure understanding of each stage before moving onto the next.

o ‘Can I do it in my head? If not which method will help me?’

Last thought…

This generation of children will experience a much wider understanding of the subject than previous ones.

They are being educated for the 21 st century using a whole new range of technology backed up by the results of educational research.

Don’t expect them to be able to do the kind of calculations you were subjected to at the same age. Their learning is focused on understanding and not number crunching.

Thank you

• Thank you for attending this parents’ evening • Please stay for; • Any feedback • Exploring resources • Questions