Helping your Child with their Learning at Home Looking at New Mathematics Curriculum

What does the New Curriculum mean for our children? *New content - such as addition and subtraction of fractions, which, has been ‘secondary maths’. *The pace of teaching and learning is greatly accelerated – many topics are introduced earlier and are taught faster. *It is a ‘mastery curriculum’ - Children will be expected to master a bank of specifically age-related skills. *Strong emphasis on both written and mental calculation, including more advanced calculations involving fractions and decimals. *Further emphasis on importance of rote-learning in relation to number facts and underlying principles. *Finally conceptual understanding and procedural fluency underpin the mathematics curriculum.

Mathematics at Highburton Children have mathematics every day for just over an hour. Typically, a maths lesson includes a ‘Mental, Oral Starter’ a main teaching session, opportunity for children to embed their new skills and a summing up session to assess what has been learned. We group children for maths so that they are in groups with children of a similar ability. This means the teaching can be better tailored to each child’s mathematical ability.

Areas of Mathematics Using and applying mathematics Counting and understanding number Knowing number facts Calculating Understanding shape Measuring Handling data

‘The Four Pillars of Mathematics’ ‘The four pillars of mathematics’ can be thought of as the understanding and skills that a successful KS2 mathematician should have. Without an understanding or ownership of these, mathematics will continue to be very difficult to understand. Place value Number facts bank Images and models Doubling/Halving - Relationships between operations and their properties

Question What is one eighth of a million?

Place Value Place value is an understanding of the value of each digit in a number. It is not just ‘an easy maths topic for the beginning of each year’ but is a crucial, underpinning element of mathematics. With this understanding a child should be able to understand what happens when multiplying, dividing by, adding or subtracting 10, 100, 0.1 etc.

Question How would you calculate 36 x 10?

Knowledge 400 = 400 units or 40 tens or 4 hundreds 1.25 = 1 unit, 2 tenths and 5 hundredths 642 = 600 + 40 + 2 36 x 10 = 360 (30 tens x 10 = 300; 10 lots of 6 = 60) 3.6 x 10 = 36 (Why we don’t just say ‘add a 0’) One pound 5 pence = £1.05 not £1.5 One more and one less

Number Facts Bank Memory is a muscle, use it or lose it. ‘Just knowing’ facts really helps with mental and written calculations. ‘Number Bonds’ (two numbers) that make 10, 20, 100, 1 Times tables facts 1 more or 1 less These are important the whole way through school. Even if your child is a level 6 they should be able to apply their knowledge to quickly say number facts for more complicated numbers.

Images and Models When learning a new aspect of mathematics the simplest model will be used. Number line with each number marked on Knowing the number that comes before / after Landmarked number line (in 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s) Empty number line Number square

Progression in the operations Addition Subtraction Multiplication Division As we are teaching children new concepts we are aiming for them to understand WHY they are solving it the way that they choose. We try, as much as possible, to avoid teaching procedures that they are unable to explain back to us. For any number problems we want children to: Read the problem Choose the best way of solving it (can I do it in my head?) Work out the answer Be able to explain how they have reached their answer

So what can parents do to help? *Help your child with their homework. *Have an analogue clock so your child can tell the time before they are seven. * Take interest in your child mastering the basics, especially number fact knowledge. They need to keep these facts ‘on-the-boil’. We simply cannot afford to have these forgotten or to have to re-teach them at a later date. *Ensure your child dedicates time for mathematics like you would do for reading. * Have a positive attitude to mathematics.

Questions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgUYIBFfLhs