Maths extension activities

[islandmummy]

Can I ask what the maths extension activities are like at your primary school? My son is in year 2. He was showing a natural aptitude for maths in Reception - mainly mental arithmetic - seemed to be able to add numbers together easily, picks concepts up very easily. I don't think he really made much progress last year as they didn't learn anything new. I am keen for him to be a bit more challenged this year. Although his teacher accepts that he can do what's on this year's curriculum already, she says they wouldn't teach him the yr 3 curriculum but would instead explore the concepts they teach and 2 digit numbers in more depth. I'm not really clear on what she means by this.

Anyway, sorry for ramble, but just wondered what other schools do?

Thanks!

Schools are annoyingly reluctant to teach material from later years so this is a common response. You probably need to check what curriculum materials they are using and verify that your son is actually being asked to do the extension exercises and being given decent feedback. You might ask to speak to the Primary Mathematics Coordinator for your school and get a clear grasp of their G&T activities for maths. If you see the PMC also ask if children are entered for the Primary Mathematics Challenge. While that would apply only from perhaps Y4, certainly Y5, it focuses on the problem-solving puzzles that tend to challenge brighter kids, and is a good indication that the school is into providing for the more able. You might find that the school is useless at all this. I ended up moving my DS into private ed to get him taught to his level, as the local school had poor Level 5 outcomes, sod all G&T (the job of the G&T half-wit seemed to be to find excuses not to put kids into the programme) and no entries to competitions. Good primary schools in the state sector will sort this out properly.

It is not in itself a bad idea to ask kids to do wider material from their current study level, you just need to check it is really happening and not a bunch of words designed to fob you off!

Thank you very much roguedad for taking the time to share all of this. It's very helpful to have some things to look into! I haven't heard anything about G&T at his level - I thought it would only kick in from yr3 onwards. I'll definitely look into competitions too (my son would love that!) It's a forward-thinking, outstanding-rated school that prides itself on approaching things differently (no reading scheme, very little homework, no rewards - kids encouraged to learn for the love of learning rather than for marks/stickers/stars etc). I wonder if they would shy away from competitions as they don't like competitive things generally. Hmm. I haven't heard of the PMC, but the teacher has suggested I speak to the deputy head, so maybe that's in his remit and he can help. Thank you!

Our primary school enters children for the primary maths challenge and gets children with level 6 in maths every year.

The new curriculum intends that children are taught the curriculum designed for their year group and extension work is provided for the better children to acquire "mastery". However, teachers will really have to work to differentiate in this way - but it IS expected. Therefore the teacher is correct in what she says. The idea is to really embed the maths and not move onto to more complex topics until it is "secure" (mastery is above secure). Year 2 is now doing the new curriculum - last year they did not. Lots of schools are holding Maths evenings to explain the new curriculum and how the children will be assessed.

It is also worth noting that the new curriculum is more demanding than the previous one. Therefore, any child who was moved away from the old curriculum, to a new school, may well find the new maths curriculum more challenging and suitable. However, independent schools can do what they want. Unless a child is extremely gifted at maths, I would think the new curriculum will suit the vast majority and level 6 is now harder to achieve because the curriculum has been extended. Make sure your teacher gives your child extension tasks when he is secure in the standard tasks.

I think the bigger problem is with lower achieving or non motivated children who really will struggle. If they do not get the basic concepts, then moving on is very difficult for them and the gap in their attainment is likely to widen. This is a huge challenge for schools as the goalposts have been significantly moved - skywards!

I would definitely look at the level 6 attainment at your school. My state primary school had 35% of year at level 6 in the final year for Maths. It's not ofsted outstanding. It's rated good. It means for us, that my dc's are in similar bright cohort that are all being stretched. The more of them there are - the more the school is forced to maintain this attainment level and work at it. I agree with previous poster on mastery work but I would really pay attention on what this means at your school. You also have the option of doing extra extension work at home to supplement.

www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/12212/mathspuzzlesall.pdf is old, but a good example of how 'challenge in maths' doesn't mean 'calculations with harder numbers'.

nrich.maths.org/frontpage is also excellent, and is divided into e.g. lower primary, upper primary etc.

This is the type of thing I would expect a school to already be using to challenge able mathematicians in an 'age appropriate' way, because it encourages mathematical thinking and breadth rather than accelerating a child through curriculum coverage.

If the school isn't doing these, then they are entirely suitable for use at home. nrich usually provides solutions, the Maths Puzzles document does not, as far as I remember.

nrich is very good, as is checking out Level 6 attainment. I think from a public policy point of view, where you try to do the best for the majority, this type of in-year extension is OK strictly provided the school actually does it properly, rather than once in a blue moon telling the brighter kids to do the harder problems at the end of the section. But it is utterly hopeless for the genuinely gifted, and their parents often get forced to go private or home-school to provide the pace that the kid needs. Schools do need to be more flexible about it if they have a real live wire - imagine the ludicrousness of wasting the time of a young Arran Fernandez or Ruth Lawrence with "extension activities" - our brightest kids deserve rather better and should not be driven out of the system. I do not think there is any such thing as "age-appropriate maths" - this to me seems to be a mistaken transfer of a notion from assigning suitable reading, that has no place in mathematics, where material needs to be "ability appropriate".

Roguedad, I agree that nrich, and Level 6, are irrelevant to the '1 in 10,000' or '1 in 100,000' level of giftedness in Maths.

The child I know who fell into the 1 in 10,000 (most teachers will encounter 1 or fewer such children in a lifetime of teaching) category completed A-level equivalent Maths by videoconference from the sixth form block, and then moved onto 'maths problems by post' from a Maths professor. Aged about 12.

The Maths Olympiad contestants I know essentially did other things during Maths lessons at school (advanced cookery lessons, in 1 case) before being old enough to enter Cambridge.

However, most 'normally gifted' children - the type like me, who get easy As in Maths and Further Maths at A-level and go on to do a science subject, but not Maths, at Oxbridge - can be extended 'laterally' rather than vertically. The Maths curriculum is a single, narrow path through the world of Maths - so much is NOT taught that is entirely age appropriate (I remember doing Topology, and formal Logic, at primary), that there is plenty of scope.

Yup - agreed t2k. These discussions can easily be confounded by the threshold for the word "gifted". I'm a big fan of lateral extension in fact, especially when it focuses on problem-solving. I'm just a bit jaded, both from my kid's experience and from all the stories I heard when teaching kids maths at uni about how utterly bored they'd been at school. Some of them like me had widened their scope (me musically, though cookery is a great plan - one of my PhD students got through the early rounds of Bake-Off), while others only just made it through.

Thank you again everyone - this is all fascinating reading. My son is definitely in the "normally gifted" category - he's not a genius, just picks things up easily. I'll definitely have a look at those resources.

How do I find out about level 6?

For Level 6 I suggest you ask the head or the PMC. What should happen is that the kids who are suitable for it are given some relevant extension work and sit an extra paper or two near the end of Y6. I reckon the important thing is that the school offers it and some kids make the grade. It would be hard for a smaller school to offer meaningful stats on it. It's a bit harder to prepare for the PM Challenge as the problems tend to be a but more oddball, but L6 has a certain form you can aim for.

However, there is no longer a Level 6 paper - or any 'level' paper, but more specifically no separate Level 6 paper - from this year.

HISTORIC Level 6 data for the 4 years of children who were able to take it (before then there was a long gap, though it had been offerred quite some time ago) gives a useful insight into the school's attitude to able mathematicians (some schools had 20%+ level 6, some schools 0%), but your own child will no longer be able to take it if they at primary at the moment.

The current thoughts about the end of Y6 test is that it wikl cover all abilities, and the questions targeted at the 'more able' will demand depth of understanding rather than advanced curriculum. On the other hand, tere is more in the new Year 6 curriculum than there used to be, so the line between 'year 6 curriculum' and 'more advanced' has moved IYSWIM?

Oh - thanks t2k - I did not know the separate paper had been abolished. Sorry OP - I am out of date.