Are children meant to do literacy and numeracy daily in ks2?

[Horizontalrain]

I'm a little worried by how much dc's class seems to miss literacy or numeracy. Sometimes literacy is smuggled into another subject such as science but numeracy is harder to do that with.

Is this normal?

Are you sure they're not doing a lot of stuff cross-curricularly?

If indeed, cross-curricularly is a word.

They might do some literacy this way eg. Writing about an aspect of science as I say but not numeracy I don't think.

You can easily fit lots of numeracy into science, DT, Art and geography

How much access do you have to their learning materials?

Ours do the cross disciplinary thing a lot, but they do a designated session on both maths and literacy each day too. We get a timetable each year and it's on our school website too, so we can see shape of the day. Could you ask for one maybe?

I went into a numeracy workshop yesterday (at my DC school) and they talked about how they fit numeracy into quite a few lessons like history and even PE sometimes...

I honestly don't think they are doing much numeracy in other lessons if they are at all. Dc is quite switched on and I'm sure would notice even if it were maths by stealth! When they do writing in science the teacher isn't mentioning literacy learning objectives such as using specific punctuation or stretching vocab.

They are missing 1 to 2 lessons of literacy or numeracy a week. So doing each 3 to 4 times a week. For all I know they might do a double lesson of literacy though one of the times.

I don't have any access to materials and the school is not particularly open to parents asking to see timetables or books...

Are you worried that your son's literacy and numeracy are poor, or are relatively poor? And if so would it be worth bringing it to his teacher's attention? What are the school's sats, league tables results like?

All fine from that point of view learnandsay but it's the idea they are missing at least 20% of their core subjects' lesson time, for things like an extra dance class (one day a week this term and next).

I'd love my DS to have extra dance classes. Suppose it's swings and roundabouts. If his levels are okay though, maybe they're doing more than you think? Could you book appt with class teacher to talk it through maybe? You might even be pleasantly surprised.

If there isn't a problem to address you might want to be diplomatic about how you approach the subject. There's no point in being critical simply for the sake of being critical. If your son's numeracy and literacy are good and the school's test results are good then there is a good chance that what they are doing works regardless of how it looks to you.

Both literacy and maths can be delivered in topic based work - even the most switched on child SHOULD miss telling you yes mum we did fractions today - when in their mind they have been baking cakes and sharing them out, children SHOULD miss the maths in that RE lesson where they just fiddled around with marzipan balls on their lent cake, children SHOULD get a feeling of the flow of maths and number maniuplation through games, songs, crafts and yes dam it even PE - if you are expecting and get a page of neatly written multiple digit column addition from your Y2 child I'd be concerned at the lack of imagination of the staff.
Tread carefully and you may be amazed at the care and thought that us maths teachers put into lessons - and the spectacular leaps of knowledge that so many children gain.
Really if you quest for pure maths alone then invest in Singapore Maths or Kumon classes, but before you do, have a look at Chinese current policy on maths education - which seeks to incorperate creative rather than robotic learning.
rant over.

DS seems to do a session of numeracy and literacy per day. But then they have whole days devoted to community or the world or nature. I think it's great to break up the structure sometimes, keep things fresh for pupils and teachers.