To think that primary schools should teach long division

[ReallyTired]

My son has no clue how to do long or short division or use an equivalent method to work out 484/8

When I showed him he understood and picked up reasonally quickly. I am sure that most children in my class could do long division by the age of eleven.

I feel that children should not reach for the calculator until they learn trig. I think that children's over reliance on calculators is why British children are weak at maths. Also the tenancy to try and teach 15 million different methods of doing division without mastering one!

Is it that "they dont teach it nowadays" or is it that your ds hasnt been shown yet?

Call Michael Gove. He's redrafting the redraft of the primary curriculum as we speak. He might be able to fit some long div in.

I would suggest you take this up with the school because it's certainly taught in my school and my dd's school.

What age is he?
We are in Ireland and it is certainly taught here but probably not until age 9 or so. And calculators in primary is that true? We didn't have calculators until secondary. I'm pretty sure that's still the case here. Why on earth would kids need calculators for primary level maths?

Tenancy or tendency? ;)

It's taught at my school. Agree with you about the many methods-can be confusing!

dd in yr 4 has 2 methods to tackle this

chunking & the bus stop method

dd yr 6 has 3

chunking, bus stop & long division

My DD (year 6) has been taught it.

DD2, year 3 hasn't yet, but she's in an intervention group for maths (dyspraxic) so hasn't got that far yet

Ah, chunking. I love that - I was good at Maths but never "got" long division the way I understood everything else. Do I worked out a form of chunking which has always served me well.

Now they actually teach it in year 4. Marvellous. And presumably something that all schools do, although maybe not at the same time for all children?

DS1 I ended up teaching at home in Y2, because he asked me how to divide bigger numbers. DS2 is in Y4, and is just learning 'chunking' now. I think the rest of DS1's class learnt in Y4, but he HATES chunking because I taught him the way I was taught, and he'd used it for two years before the school got around to teaching them!

They do teach it.

DS1 in Y6 occasionally uses a calculator, when he is doing sine/cosine/hypotenuse of triangle thingy. Or multiplying using Pi (no symbol for that on my keypad).

Other than that, no calculator allowed.

He is working considerably above the 'usual' Y6 work in Maths though.

What's chunking I always worked it out in my head or break it down but can not work it out the way I was taught so was marked lower :( same with subtraction I work out the difference I am very good at mental arithmetic but get confused the way I was taught at school

Ds1, year 4, has learnt some sort of method of long division, possibly chunking?
And they don't use calculators either, although he loves playing with mine at home, especially since I taught him how to write boobies on it

Freudian - Maths teaching in primary now gives children a variety of ways at approaching arithmetic so if a child can't do the traditional thing, they might find an alternative strategy easier.

I didn't realise this until I asked Yr 4 teachers why they ere using the interminable grid method for multiplication.

It can be a bit frustrating -DS1 can do multiplication the way I showed him 2 years ago but has been expected to show workings in the grid method instead, but overall I think it's an improvement as fewer children seem to be left clueless.

I can't explain chunking quickly, but it involves multiplying up to find an answer. So for 364 / 7 you might say I know 50 x 7 is 350, then I need another 14 which is 2x 7 so the answer to 364/7 is 52.

Dixie D, calculators are introduced in 4th class (age 10) and used in 4th, 5th and 6th class in Ireland. This has been the case, at least since the introduction of the new curriculum in 1999.

I can remember doing long division at school. But now, at the grand old age of 36, I have no recollection whatsoever how to do it and have clearly had no need to use it since.

My 14yo can do it though, so clearly they do still teach it.

YABU

They do teach it. My 6 yo has just started learning how to do it (state primary). They do if differently from how I did it though (1970s).

They do teach it.

We teach it. Although, I am still working on addition and subtraction. Long division will be tackled in my class in the new year. My class are 9yo.

My dd does kumon because I have no faith in how she is being taught maths at school. They sporadically do a times table then months later do another one with no practise in between. She is 8 and before starting kumon was still counting on her fingers.

My son (y6) has learnt it. They were doing it last year, could have been introduced earlier as we just returned to the uk last year. He had not learnt it before.

I think they should go back to the old style teaching methods of my Grandparents generation. Modern teaching methods are a waste of time IMO

"Modern teaching methods are a waste"

Really?!

And what do you base that on dinkybinky?