Keeping kids in from play at lunchtime.

@cardibach if reasonable adjustments won’t help and a child can’t access the test then I assume they wouldn’t sit the paper as they would be working below standard.

Dyslexia etc?
No knowledge of dyscalculia, which is different , then?
Just focussed on one issue.
This is very poor.

That shows you have no clue about dyscalculia. A scribe or reader won’t help. I can read and write perfectly fluently. I was an English teacher. What I can’t do is manipulate or remember numbers. They make no sense. Drilling me just makes me feel stupid. What are you doing for children like I was? Because I fucking hated maths in primary school and lower secondary. Still got a B at O level, because I used a calculator whenever possible and can do mathematics. It’s arithmetic I can’t do (and remembering phone numbers, and access codes, and estimating, and measuring, and working out time, eg ‘what time is it an hour and 40 mins after 8.25? Not a clue mate).

@cardibach reasonable adjustments will be put in place. Many pupils will have a scribe or a reader (depending on the test)

There are reasonable adjustments in the statutory test for pupils with dyslexia etc. And if children are showing problems with learning them, intervention classes like the one OP describes might be useful in identifying whether there is an underlying issue.

But most people who struggle to read, maybe because of dyslexia, don't usually proudly declare they can't read, whereas many parents (usually in front of their children) are quite happy to say they were shit at maths, and that gives the go ahead for children to declare they are shit at maths too and not put the effort in. It is fine to say you struggled, but then try and find ways to help your children. There are so many resources/aids available nowadays to help children with dyslexia etc to access reading, maths etc.

I don’t think anyone has said you can’t succeed in life without knowing your tables but for god sake, make his life easier if you can by giving him one less thing to work out while he’s trying to do increasingly difficult maths problems. It’s about reducing cognitive load.

Another good reason to get rid of pointless testing.
What adjustments are you making for dyscalculic students? (And some dyslexics have similar issues) Or are you making them feel like stupid, lazy failures? That’s how I felt.

It’s tricky for us because our kids go to after-school club but I try and make a point of turning up at normal pick up now and again so that I can talk to the teacher if need be

I tend to agree with others that extra times table practice one lunchtime a week is a good idea.

Your school may be different, but at our school you can just catch the teacher at the end of the day and ask questions. I would ask about his progress with maths and times tables, explain that he’s mentioned to lunchtime practice and ask how he’s getting on.

And yet in the real world he could use a calculator. Contrary to what my maths teachers told us everyone has one in their pocket these days. If they can be learned with some repetition, great. For some children (and adults) they can’t and we shouldn’t keep forcing them.
To put it into perspective - I don’t know mine as I’ve said a few times. My memory is excellent in learned Portia’s ‘quality of mercy’ speech from Merchant of Venice at 16 and I still know most of it. Inability to learn tables doesn’t always mean lack of effort. Some just can’t.

My DD passed her GCSE maths this summer (Yay!!). In the non calculator paper she wrote out a times tables grid at the start so she had it to refer to for the rest of the time. Not at all ideal, but there are work arounds.

For the vast majority who can instant recall of learn times tables if they put the effort in, it is worth it and will make secondary maths easier. But some with SEN can't.

As a teacher have you never heard of dyslexia?! Please never say you are frustrated by children who are unable to learn by rote. My 22 year old, who is very bright, still couldn’t recite her times tables like that!! I’m fairly shocked by your comment

Me too. Found out much later I have dyscalculia. Maybe you do too if they won’t stick despite you understanding the concepts and being able to do the mathematical parts. Arithmetic just isn’t something my brain can handle. Full and useful life, including one year training as an accountant (I passed the exams for Y1, just didn’t enjoy so moved on to something else)
So many on here declaring it’s laziness when they wouldn’t say that if a dyslexic person made errors.

These clubs exist partly because parents either can't (due to work commitments etc) or don't help their DC, so schools have to step in.

For those saying it is the school's responsibility to teach times tables, they do, but they need parents to help reinforce the concepts. It's a bit like teaching your young child the colours, animals etc when they first start to talk and recognise these things. You don't point out a cow to them once and tell them it is cow and it says moo, and then expect them to remember that. Like reading, times tables need to be repeated not just once for it to stick.

Depending on how old they are I bet many grandparents could rattle them off as they would have been deeply ingrained into them at school.

I think a lot of parents don't realise how crammed the national curriculum is. It should be detailed on your school's website. You will then see how much they have to fit in on each school day

Oh and learning the times tables are incredibly important.
Im in my fifties but my second year junior school teacher (so year 4 these days), was a strict, formidable woman and I can still remember her ramming the times tables down our throats. At the time, it made me super anxious but all these years later, I’m thankful that I learnt them at that age.

I work in a year 4 class some of the week. Since the beginning of term, the teacher has reminded the children every day about TTRS. She has given house points and offered other incentives. She had parents evening the week before half term and had the same conversation with every parent about times tables. Unfortunately it’s still the same children doing it, which is less than a third of the class. Parents just don’t seem to understand they also play a part in their children’s education.

It doesn’t sound as if the school is very good at communicating but you (and his dad) have to take some responsibility for him needing to go to this club too. If there’s a qr code at the back of his book, you don’t need to be told to access the links - that’s obvious he should have been engaging with them! And if it wasn’t obvious to you, you should have asked his teacher.
With regards to missing lunch play, I don’t agree with that. I wonder how long this club lasts for though. It might just be 15 minutes before afternoon register. I still don’t agree with missing playtime though because children have to be super focussed all morning and they need some down time.

Except, as the OP has clearly demonstrated (and reinforced with her opinion that it's apparently unnecessary), many parents do not do this.

@sittingonabeach Only Mon-Fri but weekends we do clubs and family stuff.
my in laws look after the kids but they’re old so can’t expect them
to understand or do all of their hwk

@Baconbuttymad so do you both work like that 7 days a week? Do you never do school/after school club run with DC, that's a good time to do some times table practice. If neither of you get home before 7 who helps your DC with their homework?

Seems like the school has been very poor at communication in general. You should have been informed of the Y4 curriculum and any upcoming assessments. I'd have a word with someone on the SLT and maybe not this newly qualified teacher, she's probably under enough pressure.
If your boy likes maths then he'll probably love TTR. It's hard to get my DGS off it as he's always trying to beat his previous score.

Also not everyone is good at maths. Some people hate it and actually struggle with it but might be better at humanities!

@sittingonabeach
yes I read with my kids but I also work until 7 most evenings as does my other half so we’re not around all day. It’s the school and teachers job to teach the kids! We need to provide for them and keep a roof under their heads!!!!
also, a lot of kids work better with someone who is not their parent.

I don’t think that the importance of physical activity should be underestimated.
The way they approach maths these days is very different to when I was at school so I do tend to wait until the school tell us what to practice when, but then ours are very open and proactive with their communication.
Could it be that the school don’t experience much cooperation or interest from the parents so assume there is no point telling them? Were they expecting the children to explain what the app was for? Or is it that this particular teacher doesn’t have good communication skills?

@Baconbuttymad do you not help your child with reading? Times tables are the same thing. The school teaches the child the times tables like they do reading, but as with reading the child needs to practise. If you can’t remember them then you can learn them with them. No wonder so many children struggle with maths when they have parents saying they can’t do maths, as if it is something to be proud of. You very rarely get people proudly declaring they can’t read.