TTRockstars

[Jezzabelle]

Does anyone use TTRockstars in their school?

I have job share in a year 3/4 class and need to get on top of the teaching of times tables. Currently we send a TT home each week and expect the children to learn them, then have a weekly test. Results are variable. Some children have plenty of parental support and others very little. Was going to find time to do some practice in school and thought of finding some good songs on you tube, then I came across TTRockstars and wondered if this might be the way forward. What does everyone think please??

[RiftGibbon]

My DCs school use TTRockstars in lessons and children have a login so that they can access and practice from home.
The children's knowledge has been underpinned by not just knowing that, for example, 5x6=30, but why it does.

[Wellmet]

My last school used it....the children loved it. I think it's great tbh, had a good impact on results.
Highly recommend.

[Pinkflipflop85]

We have been using it for 2 years now. It has been great for our school/children. We publish stats weekly on the website and on displays around the school. It has also helped get children ready for the year 4 test (we were part of the trials).

[likeafishneedsabike]

DC’s school use it. It’s great.

[hen10]

I use it at my school and I like it a lot. Certificates, time trials, leaderboards and avatars all make it exciting for the children and they can practise at home if they have internet.

[MrsElijahMikaelson1]

It’s fantastic for fluency.
We have inter class/phase competitions! The kids are so competitive they must do it for hours at home! Some also try to stay in at lunch to do it as well! Has so improved fluency and mental maths.

[HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime]

DD had a family account and her school have just started using it. She enjoys the competitive edge to it and has always happily used it to earn coins to dress her avatar.

[inwood]

Not a teacher. Dts in t4 absolutely love it. Their test scores have gone from really low to consistently 80-90%. They absolutely love it.

[drtachyon]

My DC’s school use TT Rockstars, we have a login so DC can use it at home.

It’s been a useful way of getting my DC to practice times tables at home, although I think parental support is still a factor, we can see his classmates points, and some children have clearly spent far more time on it than others.

[Jezzabelle]

Thanks so much all. That's really great feedback. Our school has very little money and we already have a Mathletics subscription. Had a chat today and think we might try to use the TT element in Mathletics as a first step. (Haven't had Mathletics long so just familiarising ourselves with it).

I do think Ttrockstars looks better though so might try to talk head round in the Spring term!

[Pinkflipflop85]

Our children engage far more with tt rockstar than mathletics. The competitive element makes such a difference

[hallamoo]

TT rockstars costs £94.40 for a year's subscription for schools - well worth the money!

[Bluewavescrashing]

It's better than the government as oftware for the tt test, embarrassingly.

My DD cheats it, though, to collect more coins. She favours speed over accuracy when answering the questions, having found she'll get more coins this way. Minor flaw in the design though. The avatars are appealing to 8 year olds and it looks cool enough to be a game for them.

[icecreamsundae32]

My children's school use it. My 8yo in year 4 struggles with the timed aspect of it - he knows most of his times tables- struggles a bit with 7&8 but he hates TTRockstars because it is so quick fire and puts him on spot so he panics and just puts any answer just to be in time whereas if he had a normal pen and paper questions he's fine.... possible slow processing? So it doesn't help all kids. I've been practicing with him at home the old fashioned way lol. Their school also use Prodigy for maths which he loves and plays most nights!

[drtachyon]

@icecreamsundae32

My 8 yr old was also struggling a bit with the timed aspect on TT Rockstars (some of the games have more time pressure than others).

I mentioned that to his teacher at parents evening and she said that the actual Year 4 times tables test they have to do on the computer also has visible timers on it.
So it’s useful for the kids to be used to the timed aspect of things before they get to the actual official test.

[icecreamsundae32]

@drtachyon funny as I also mentioned it at parents eve. His teacher never mentioned a timer in the test tho, maybe she doesn't know tho as she's an NQT? She said she'd get him some grids instead to practice.

My oldest was a whizz at times tables well before this age and he would have enjoyed the competitive nature of TTRockstars lol kids are all different but I can def see how these games appeal to kids who are often online anyway!

[Pinkflipflop85]

Pp is correct. The year 4 test is timed and children need to get used to responding quickly on a computer.

[MrsElijahMikaelson1]

Everything is about fluency so the quicker your recall the better it is

[elevendollarbills]

As a parent I bloody hated TTRockstars. It's a licence for children to nag for more screen time, which they then spend messing about with avatars rather than actually learning anything. Practising TT while walking to school was far more effective. I rejoiced when our school dropped TTRockstars.

[BlueGingerale]

I prefer Times Table Tutor for kids who need a less stressful, less competitive way to get fluent at TT.

It’s also got mock timed tests etc for the Y4 test but it’s designed for those kids who need a calmer program.

[ILoveAnOwl]

I signed up for the free trial yesterday. It lasts until the end if term and has a baseline assessment so I'm hoping I can show enough progress by Christmas to convince the head to buy it in the new year.

[icecreamsundae32]

@BlueGingerale is that Times Table Tutor a school one or can individual parents buy it for their kids?

[GetTheGoodLookingGuy]

We've had it at school since May, but only really been using it properly since September. I really like it. I work in Y4 so we're doing a big push on it - we have a big display board which has all the Rock Speeds and the children's rock names on little bits of paper which move up as they improve their speed. We also have space on the display for Fastest Rock Speed, Most Improved, Most Coins and Star of the Week, which are updated weekly (we take the child's photo with an inflatable guitar).

We have stickers of the logins in reading records and homework books, and a laminated set of login cards for school. In my class, they get to go on it first thing in the morning once a week for 10/15 minutes during the register, and lots of them opt to play during Golden Time. The kids love challenging the staff! We are having a "Battle of the Bands" between the three Y4 classes next week, and are planning on getting a trophy for the winning class, with a view to having more competitions later in the year. Today, I found some silly posters with "quotes" from children and various other people on the TTRS website that you can download and plug in the kids' names, so I've had fun fly-posting around school.

Some children are always motivated to learn times tables, but TTRS is good at motivating other children. One of my SEN and EAL children has learnt her 10 times table through it, scoring really well in the paper-based tests we do in school, far quicker than she would have without it.

[BlueGingerale]

@icecreamsundae33 - Times Table Tutor can be bought by either schools or parents.

www.timestabletutor.co.uk/Shop