1. Welcome to St Paul’s Maths Information Evening

2.  Consider the ways in which the teaching of maths has changed.  Look at how children calculate.  Explore ways in which parents can support the children in their learning.

3. Children are encouraged to work mentally, where possible, using jottings to help support their learning.

4.  When faced with a calculation problem, we encourage children to ask:  “Can I do this in my head?”  “Could I do this in my head using drawings or jottings to help me?”  “Do I need to use a written method?”  “Will I need to use a calculator?”

5. Teaching Mental Maths – why? So that your child develops the skills to be able to: Remember number facts and recall them without hesitation. Use facts that are known by heart to figure out new facts. Apply their understanding of place value and ability to partition numbers into parts. Understand and use the laws of arithmetic and relationships between the four operations to find answers and check results. Solve word problems. Have a repertoire of mental strategies to do calculations.

6. Build on mental skills – knowing number bonds, times tables etc. Written calculations Children need to make connections.

7. The aim is that children will always be able to recognise when calculations can be done ‘ in their heads’ and choose effective and efficient strategies to work out the answers. Teaching Calculations: In the earlier years, the emphasis is on: working mentally, some jottings for more challenging numbers calculations recorded in horizontal number sentences Models and images

8.  In later years, children will be gradually taught more formal written methods of calculation but they will still use mental methods and jottings where appropriate.

9. Children are exposed to several methods for calculations. They use the method that they find the most efficient for that particular stage in their learning. An efficient method should allow for: speed – how quickly can the calculation be completed? confidence – can it be completed independently? accuracy – is the answer correct?

15. Have a ‘fact of the week’ – pin around the house and practise over the week. Use a set of playing cards to add numbers. How many can they collect in 2 minutes? Give your child an answer – how many number sentences can they write with this answer. When shopping with your child, ask them to total 2 or 3 items. What change should you receive?

16. Use a bus or train timetable to work out how long a journey between 2 places will take. Work together to plan a party or a meal with a budget set. Use a TV guide to work out the length of their favourite programmes. Can they calculate how much time they spend watching TV each day/week? Play ‘ping pong’ to practise complements. You say a number, they reply with what is needed to make 10, 20, 100 etc. Encourage speed! Give children opportunities to use money to shop and check change. Talking about the Mathematics in football e.g. how many points does your favourite team need to catch the next team in the league?

18. Thank you for coming