to be worried about how my DC are being taught in Maths?

[GraduationBear]

The school are following the SEAL approach (Scotland) and it seems to be The Big Thing.

My concerns are

• they don't seem to be doing any actual work
  
• there is very little actual teaching involved
  

In more detail, DD says that they do games to start their lesson, and then start to work in small groups or on their own. She says that the teacher barely ever does a lesson. Instead the teacher works with the small groups or individuals, but she hasn't worked with DD for ages. I asked for clarification before Christmas and got a very sharp reply that the children are supposed to explore numbers on their own.

Which is all very well and good, but producing endless posters of ten frames really isn't teaching my DD anything.

AIBU?

[SquinkiesRule]

Thats supposed to be Khan academy

[BelindaBagwash]

Never heard of SEAL but our school is heavily into Active Maths which sounds very similar. Very group-based and children exploring maths concepts and finding stuff out for themselves without teachers actually teaching very much.

As a teacher myself I find it a lazy approach and don't know how progress is to assessed and as a child I would have hated the group work and airy-fairyness of it all.

[Helloitsme90]

I have never heard of the seal approach but I loved maths as a kid. I think as long as they are taught times tables and number bonds 1-9 2-8 3-7 etc and how to add subtract divide and multiply then that's the important thing. Secondary school is where you learn the important stuff. From what I've read from some of the posts (haven't seen all) this approach is helping children to understand numbers in a more realistic way and thus helping them learn new things in the future. Do additional maths with her at home if needs be

[TheNewStatesman]

You can try talking to the school and to the teacher, but if they have drunk heavily of the snake oil you may be wasting your time.

I would strongly recommend doing maths with your child at home. It sucks, and busy families have a lot of other things they would doubtless rather be doing. But if the school is not doing its job, then what can you do other than take matters into your own hands?

There are lots of maths book series that people use for this purpose. Saxon Math, Singapore Math and the Galore Park maths series are all pretty good. Online resources like Khan can be useful but interaction with a parent or tutor is also essential for proper learning. What kids need more than anything else is lots and lots of practice--loads and loads, to build up speed and fluency.

[ComposHatComesBack]

Not sure why a 90s singer and the former Mr Heidi Klum holds such sway over the Maths curriculum in Scotland.