How is maths taught in British State schools

[Reallytired]

What is methods are used for teaching maths?

What would you expect a five year old who has just finished reception to be able to do?

Is the national numeracy stragery any good?

According to her report my just finished reception dd can regognise numerals 1-9 and sort numbers!!!!!! which is the stepping stones thingy goal.

The fact she can count to 100, add and subtract seems to have escaped them.

at DS's school very wierdly subtraction is done by drawing what can only b described as a time line with loops over it

and division is done in a grid thing

I need lessons to understand the method

in reception very little "maths" stuff as we know it - it's still foundation stage. Basically making sure they know their numbers, shapes, sorting, etc etc - the "proper" maths comes in YR1 upwards.

pb - that sounds like a numberline.

10-5 would have a loop (as you call it) going from 10-9, 9-8, 8-7, 7-6, 6-5 (so 5 "steps").

(can you tell my DS1 - just going into yr2) uses number lines a lot

If you download these documents (links on lh side) they will show you the targets for reception, and some activities you can do at home.

As a teacher, a five year just finishing Reception should be able to know the place value of numbers 1-10, be able to begin to have some idea of adding 2 numbers and know basic 2D shapes. Subtraction is a hard concept for 5 year olds and will be taught in Year 1. The hardest thing for a child entering Year 1 is being able to do their maths work relatively independently, as in a Reception class they work as groups and not individually. Methods for teaching maths: big number cards, washing line number lines, 100 grid square, multi-link cubes etc. Yes, the national numeracy strategy is very good, much better methods than when I was at school.

Just looked at that link and ds can do most of that stuff (starts Reception in Sept). Do teachers differentiate when teaching Reception, Ju72, or do you think ds will have to do it all over again?