Primary school DC can’t do basic Maths

[Cocacolathanks]

Hello wise Mumsnetters,

Three DC in Year 2, Year 4, Year 6.

Since last year, I’ve realised they’re not doing great in Maths and English. They’re all in “top sets” (basically sometimes the teachers split the class into two groups for kids that need extra support or booster sessions etc) and all parent meetings come with excellent feedback.

I’ve suddenly started paying way more attention to their actual work (because my eldest is doing tests and stuff now in prep for SATs) and I am utterly shocked.

Year 6 kid can barely count time/money/fractions - even struggled with column division!

Year 2 kid is still young enough to get by on the basics but Year 4 kid is also struggling with Maths but doing ok in English.

The main issue is Maths - it’s shockingly weak. I feel like I put too much confidence and dependency on the school and didn’t do my part.

How do I fix this? Where do I even start?

CGP Books? Online sessions? Print out the curriculum and start from scratch???

Help oh wise Mumsnetters 🥹❤️

Crucially, I would not do anything that is going to make them start to dislike maths or feel negative about it (like enforcing long extra study sessions). This can definitely do more harm than good!

Number fluency is a great place to start, especially for the younger ones. Online games, resources like 'times table rockstars' or tutoring programmes like 'Kumon maths' (many other options out there) might be good.

For your Yr6 if they are open to revising together then that's great. Maybe they would like a workbook to go through with you. You could have a phone call with the teacher to get more of a feel for their strengths/weaknesses.

But if by column division you mean long division, most my most recent Yr6 class struggled with it! Recognising time, money, fractions perhaps more basic - but if you're talking more about solving problems with these, they are not easy skills. With a good foundation in number fluency, they have plenty of years of studying maths ahead of them so don't panic :)

Imho parents evenings these days are poor. Unless your child is difficult behaviourally, they will say lots of positive things about them, none of which give any indication of their aptitude, attainment or relative progress.

If they refer a lot to expected levels, your child is distinctly average.

About 54% of pupils will get a 5 or above in maths. If your child is slap bang in the middle of the class, they are on track for a 4 or 5 at best.

Most people don't realise their childs ability or attainment level because schools are so overwhelmingly positive about all children these days.

Surely the first thing you should do is make an appointment to speak to their teachers? Especially the Yr6’s teacher & put you concerns to them. You don’t want to start introducing new maths concepts or techniques as that might confuse them.

For the year 6, go through the entire curriculum and cover it together. That way you won't waste time on stuff they do actually know. White Rose used to break the curriculum down really nicely and provide explanations, examples and practice questions. Kids are always shit with time but don't try to teach it. Get them a watch with hands for Christmas and do it that way. Same with money, don't try to teach it. Get them using money regularly in real life.

Specifically for SATs, you could ask their teacher which years SATs papers they will be using for their mocks. Then you can look at other years (available free online with answers and mark schemes) to see what to expect from the questions. I did this.

For the other 2 kids, just keep up with and practice whatever topics they are currently working on in school.

I would go back to basics as "revision" and start there.
One on one means that he should hopefully be able to pick it up quick enough if you give him an hour an evening as a priority.
Loads of praise and positive reenforcement.
I agree with the only say positive things may have gone too far.
Every week my children had maths and spelling tests on a friday which were sent home to be signed, so we always knew e exactly where they were on every topic.

They do bus stop division these days.

so yeah, column division may well have confused your child.

white rose is pretty good, they have parent books and it’s fairly consistent with the way most schools teach it.

I've experienced this and we had to get a tutor to go back to the beginning and whizz through to plug the gaps .

There are lots of maths based games that don't feel like maths - from basics such as shut the box to more complex games such as mobi, which is like scrabble but with numbers!

Rather than trying to do extra homework, look to add maths in to every day - eg if we are buying three tins of beans at 69p, how much is that all together? If we use 2 eggs for 12 cupcakes, how many so we need for 24 cupcakes?

The more you do it, the easier it is- much like reading everything, which seems more natural to most.

What have their reports said? Are they meeting expectations or not?

I would definitely find a tutor: ideally one who knows how to make it fun

I have 3 boys. I find mathletics online programme good and the boys don’t mind doing it with me. I can keep a fair idea of how they’re doing.

If their school does White Rose maths, there is a homework book you can get for about £5 on Amazon. The school gave them the book for year 5 and 6, but we bought for our youngest from year 2 abd oldest from year 3, to help re cap

Do they do maths boosters? our school does 'morning maths' - children come in 40 mins early 3 times a week to go over maths concepts in small groups with year group teachers, runs for every year group 3 to 6.

I highly recommend the cgp daily books. It’s aligned to the curriculum and difficulty gradually increases through the book.