Year 6 Maths. OMG. <quiver> help

[QuintessentialShadows]

After 4 home works, I am at my wits end.

DS1 has always been good at maths. He whizzed through Y5 homework with no problem.

Because we were away for 3 years, he also had a maths tutor last year to help him catch up.

I am in full panic mode. Every single home work has been a struggle. There are 40 odd questions/exercises, like a big pick and mix, from calculating unequal fractions, mean and mode, how many degrees and what distance between Jack and the three, volumes of cuboids, area of triangles, HCF, lowest common multiple, half of them he does not know what to do.

I am not a maths teacher. I have not learnt maths for over 20 years. I dont know what to do!

Holy cow, I just looked at the KS3 workbooks, and recognized his homework....

Our "satisfactory " primary school got 6 level 6s out of 50 last year.

It is completely insane, this presssure to get level 6 in primary school. Insane.

The school has ofsted rating "good" with many outstanding qualities.

I disagree with putting so much effort into level 6, why not put more effort on raising the level 4 students to 5?

Yes they should have been shown these in school - very few people (except maths geniuses) work it all out by themselves. I remember I used to have a math lecture in the morning and regularly fell asleep half way through - which means I would miss the key step which would have enabled me to do my maths assignment for that week!

Absolutely agree. Or level 3s to 4.

But i bet schools will soon be judged on their level 6s. Giving teachers no choice but to push for more of them.

Talk to the teacher, find out what's happening.

Hi QuintessentialShadows:

My DDs are younger - but I've found the Woodlands Junior School Numeracy webpage a very helpful way of working through whatever they don't understand (and I can't recollect myself):

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/

Menu in light blue with dark blue headings down the left hand side helps you select the particular thing - say angles - and then you can scroll through the games to the appropriate one(s) to help with that area.

From what you all have been saying, it sounds to me like the teacher is pushing for NC Level 6 for his Y6 students. I think what you have to decide is whether this is comfortably stretching your child - or is too much? I do agree with whoever posted that his homework should be manageable without much interference from you. He might ask for a second opinion if he's not sure he understands the instructions, but you shouldn't be struggling to do the work/ understand most questions.

HTH

Thanks for the link pat.

I think he can do the work, but he has been off sick for two weeks (two different tummy bugs and cough with fever) and not taken part in lessons.

He was in his top group (lower set in the top) in Y5. I (and he) panicked when we saw his homework because we had not seen these types of exercises before.
Now that I have seen the KS3 books, with explanations and more exercises, I am confident he will be ok. I have placed an order with Amazon. Last year we were supported by the CGP books for anything he straight away did not understand, we just opened the books, looked at the examples, and off he went. This year, I tried the same, but could not find any examples! I did not realize his homework was beyond KS2.

Have you tried Khan Academy? www.khanacademy.org/

It's free, there are videos and Salman Khan is an excellent tutor - he has a knack for explaining the most complex problems.

Downside that it's a huge site (and it's American terminology) so it may take a while to find what you want but it's totally worth it.

Wow, at DC school one girl only 2.3% of pupils got L6 in last year's math SATs. DS1 says he's middle ability in top set y8 & what OP describes sounds like his homework.

If your son doesn't know how, Quint, then I'd just write a note to that effect on his homework book & let him out to go play football. DD is supposed to be one of the top y6 math pupils & she doesn't know how to calculate area of a triangle, either (had a strop when I showed her, though ).

Does anyone want to suggest what the benefit is to OP's son if he does obtain this Level 6? I am thinking it might be very little indeed.

Until this thread I was not even aware that my son was possibly working towards L6. I dont see any real benefit personally, other than him enjoying solving maths puzzles. He likes maths. He has not liked the last month, though, of getting homework which is above what he has learnt, and it has caused us frustration.

A little note from the teacher explaining what is going on, would have been helpful, as it would have reassured me that it was not a repetition of y4 curriculum or some other stuff we did not see last year. I am just clueless regards to the curriculum. I need to brush up sharpish.

Ok, have now spoken to teacher, and am reassured.

She said she needed to properly asses the kids, and even a child working at top level 5 could buckle under the pressure of level 6 work, so she needed to eliminate those who wont benefit.

Level 7 is the expected level for 16 year olds?

Ha! WHO is going to buckle under the work, child or the parents? Hymph.

And what is the bloody point? Just another hoop for schools to jump through- just another point for a certain type of parent to look for "AIBU not to want to send Jocasta to the school next door- it's completely rubbish- only 10% of year 6 get level 6"

Do you have a source for that statistic, Seeker?

Which statistic?

the ones for the school next door

What, you mean you want a source for the made up figure I gave for a made up school quoted by a made up parent with a made up child called Jocasta?

My brain.

Ahem, Jocasta was not a made up child. She was a very real figment of a very real mans imagination, and also real.

?

Jocasta, Queen of Thebes, mother of Oedipus. natch.

Ah. One sees. No wonder Theodora and Rupert named their child after her.

Well, actually, the twins named her. Caractacus and Boudicca have always loved Sophocles. The playwright, not the cat. Who is, confusingly, also called Sophocles.

Ah, because I always thought the cat was simply called Sofacat, I have misheard. tut tut.

have you looked at the usborne illustrated dictionary of maths. It explains things really well and has links to the internet too, helpful if you are not particularly confident with maths yourself too