How to help with maths

How to Help your Child with Mathematics

There are lots of ways that you can help support your child’s mathematical understanding at home. You can build maths into all sorts of daily activities such as cooking (e.g. weighing and measuring) and shopping (e.g. mentally adding up all the items in your trolley then working out how much change you need back). You can also build basic understanding of number in almost all situations by asking questions and practising skills together. For example, if you’re sharing out a pizza, talk about fractions and division whilst cutting and sharing. If you’re counting how many coins are in a piggy bank, count in 2s, 5s, 10s, etc.

Below, you will find documents that show the maths curriculum for each year group from years 1 to 6. You will also find the calculation policies that we use in school to show what kind of methods of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division each year group will learn. This is really helpful for when you are helping your child with their maths homework as you can see an example of how a particular calculation method works.

We are also providing below links to useful online resources that we approve of and support the methods and strategies we use with the children in school.

Third Space and Oxford Owl

These are great websites that provide useful tips for supporting children of different ages.

White Rose Resources

Below you will find a curriculum progression overview for each year group to show what the children will learn each term in maths; these are from White Rose Maths, which provides the framework from which we plan maths lessons. Please note that we use these documents flexibly so that if we feel that the children need more time on a particular concept, we may spend more days on that before moving on. Equally, if the children show great understanding of a concept, we may move onto the next set of objectives quicker than suggested.

White Rose Parent Videos

Check out these short 'how to' guides providing information on how you can help your child understand various concepts and calculation strategies:

https://whiteroseeducation.com/parent-pupil-resources/maths/maths-with-michael

White Rose Maths have also created some parent workbooks for you to use at home:

https://www.whiterosemaths.com/parent-workbooks/

White Rose one-minute maths app

White Rose Maths have brought out a new one-minute maths app. It's free to download the app - it helps children build greater number fluency and confidence. It's all about targeted practise in engaging one-minute chunks! We would recommend starting with the subitising section (the skill of instantly recognising the number of items in a group without counting). Follow this link to download the app on Apple Store, Google Play or Amazon Kindle:

https://whiterosemaths.com/1-minute-maths

Times Tables

When children know their times tables, mental arithmetic becomes easier. Practising times tables also helps children to understand number and number relationships, and to see patterns in numbers. These skills will help them to master key concepts and move quickly through more complex maths problems with confidence.

It is important your child practices their times tables at home. They can do this by logging on to Times Tables Rock Stars. This parent guide will help explain how it works.

Children will be expected to know the following times tables in each year:

Year 1: count in multiples of 2, 5 and 10.
Year 2: be able to remember and use multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 multiplication tables, including recognising odd and even numbers.
Year 3: be able to remember and use multiplication and division facts for the 3, 4 and 8 multiplication tables, including recognising odd and even numbers.
Year 4: be able to remember and use multiplication and division facts for the multiplication tables up to 12 x 12.
Year 5: revision of all multiplication and division facts for the multiplication tables up to 12 x 12.
Year 6: revision of all multiplication and division facts for the multiplication tables up to 12 x 12

Download this free booklet Times Tables in School to learn how children are first taught to use their fingers, counters, and paper to help them find the right number before moving on to reciting times tables. The booklet includes lots of tips and games to support learning at home. You might also find this video showing practical ways to practice times tables at home helpful.

Maths At Home

Here are some great ways to have fun with maths at home: