At St. Gregory’s Catholic Primary School we are dedicated to promoting enthusiasm and enjoyment of Mathematics through the provision of a range of experiences which enable all children to achieve, develop, maintain and stimulate their curiosity and interest. We place great emphasis on encouraging children to talk about their ideas in mathematics and to reason mathematically, using a wide range of vocabulary. Developing the children’s confidence and accuracy with their understanding and recall of mathematical facts and knowledge and the application of these skills and concepts to real-life problem solving contexts is also at the heart of our teaching and learning. It is imperative that the adults surrounding children, both in school and at home, also encourage pupils to see the value and purpose in all maths, putting learning into context within our world (yes, that includes Roman Numerals!).
A typical mathematics lesson
For three mornings per week, we do a 'Maths Blast', which consists of the children practising four different maths objectives in a problem solving or reasoning context. It is this continual recapping of a variety of prior-learning that helps to keep learning fresh in mind. For two days per week, we do basic arithmetic, recapping the basics in number, including varying methods.
The daily mathematics lesson lasts approximately sixty minutes. There is a great emphasis on children talking about mathematics and on using mathematical vocabulary. Mathematics resources such as counters and Numicon are used to provide children with a range of images to help develop their mathematical understanding. Although children learn to record their mathematical learning, some lessons are practical and some even take place outside. It is important to relate learning within mathematics to the real world, including the outside environment, and learning in other subject areas. Therefore, topic work will be included where it usefully supports mathematical investigations or learning in a cross-curricular setting, i.e. Timelines of historical events etc.
Curriculum Objectives for Year 5 Maths
Please see the attached ‘Maths Curriculum Objectives’ document for guidance on what exactly is expected of learning under the National Curriculum.
How can you help your child’s maths learning?
One of the most valuable things that you can do is to talk to your child about their maths learning. Ask them what they have been learning in class and encourage them to explain. We all use maths in our everyday lives which means that there are plenty of opportunities to help your child with their maths learning, by involving them in everyday activities. Here are some possible ideas which you could use:
Times Tables Facts
Children who have mastered their times tables gain a solid foundation in mathematics that will help them throughout their progression within the subject. The national expectation is that every child must be able to answer any times table question mentally by the end of Year 4. Children are expected to know all times tables up to 12 x 12, the facts in any order (eg. 6 x ? = 42 or 42 ÷ ? = 6) and related division facts (eg. 6 x 6 = 36 so 60 x 6 = 360, and 3600 ÷ 60 = 60) and apply this knowledge to other calculations.
All children in Year 5 are expected to practise their times tables regularly as part of their home learning. From January 2018, all children will have their own TimesTablesRockstars account, which will become a big part of our maths learning. Children should log in very regularly to build their confidence in multiplication tables and related division facts. We will have a class leaderboard, to see who can complete the most facts in 60 seconds! Children do not need to sit down for extended periods to learn their times tables – 5 minutes practice every day is enough. This could involve playing times tables games on their home computer, an iPad/Android app, chanting times tables whilst playing catch or simply challenging them to answer questions on the drive to school!
Below is a list of websites that your child could use for practising their times tables:
WEB SITES FOR MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION GAMES
Link to TimesTableRockstars login: https://ttrockstars.com/beta/
TimesTableRockstars is also available on most portable devices, including Apple, Android and Google.