Parent friendly summary Objectives KS1/ 2 Maths curriculum

[PastSellByDate]

Hello there:

I've stumbled across this today - found it useful/ clear summary of what your child should be taught/ able to do by year and rather wish I'd been aware of this way back when DD1 was starting Year 1 (DD1 now Y6).

michaelt1979.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/maths-key-objectives1.pdf

I hope this link will be of help to you

PSBD

I have been looking for something like this for some time. Thanks!

Past, this is great!

It wasn't around when your child was in Y1 because it is the new curriculum from September 2014

www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/primarymaths/download/file/PDF/Year1Icanstatements1.pdf the current curriculum

That's brilliant Past thank you

Sorry mrz - I mean a simple sheet of A4 telling me by bullet point what should be covered/ mastered in maths for that school year - not the contents (although in fact they aren't hugely different).

I concede that other schools/ LEAs might have these resources - but having asked for them for 5 years now - and given up in despair and recently seen a few posts asking for this kind of thing I thought it might help to circulate it.

But I can see how weaker teachers might not appreciate clued up parents. I really can.

I was just looking for this yesterday - trying to figure out when they do long multiplication!

Thank you!!

It's always been freely available to clued up parents on the DfE site PSBD

Actually mrz - although I may have missed it - I was looking for the last 5 years.

My solutions have been campaign for real educations maths curriculum notes: www.cre.org.uk/docs/primary_maths_curriculum.pdf - useful/ but long-winded/ very little about what happens in Y6/ ideal world stuff - our school wasn't doing a lot of this.

Someone posted sort of APP style I can do statements from Lancashire (?I think) - which I had been using - in response to this very question which has repeatedly appeared.

These very definitely do not appear on the DofE website. Programmes of study for the new curriculum (in full) of course do: www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-mathematics-programmes-of-study

It has been my personal experience that parent friendly resources to explain what the national curriculum is and what your child should be doing when have never been terribly easy to track down.

I kind of presume that is the objective from both government and teachers. Heaven forbid you have informed parents that can be armed with clear facts on what should be being delivered in a school - why that would put much too much pressure on these highly trained professionals we call 'teachers'.

This is all I can find for those children (so current Y2/ Y6) working to old national curriculum: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/286343/Primary_maths_curriculum_to_July_2015_RS.pdf

which is what I've been seeing on the DofE website for maths for a few years now - and very definitely avoids any sort of statement about when children might be learning these things (thus St. Mediocre endlessly telling parents 'Oh they'll learn that next year' - and I include multiplication facts in that right up to Year 6).

Now I'm ancient and very old fashioned - thus my username choice....

But I presume all teachers have been to University - they have received a course syllabus for each lecture course they take - that will set out: what will be covered - title & summary of each lecture/ reading for each lecture/ explanation of what skills they will acquire as a result of the course & indeed a description of how they will be assessed.

Now if school teacher's average salary is in line with a University lecturers (and at St. Mediocre average pay is £39K a year - more than a starting Uni lecturer) - I do rather feel annoyed that they are not capable of explaining coherently to me what my child will be learning each term - beyond short titles or indeed the atrocious curriculum summaries - which say absolutely nothing in detail: (e.g. from St. Mediocre's own website - link to purchased Y6 curriculum: web.educationlincs.ftpuk.net/_site_images/cu_1742/1325609_l.pdf) - this by the way was put up with great fanfare after years of parental complaint that we don't understand what our children are doing in school. Am I alone in feeling this 'ticks that box' but achieves very little clarity?

Many parents are working with only this level of information mrz - and I'm sorry - it quite simply isn't fair on us or our children. We have to 'trust' that a school is covering what they should be/ is doing enough with our child - and find out way too late in the day that simply isn't happening - I refer you back to the catch-up discussion on MN Primary Talk: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/2105702-They-all-catch-up

It's a useful link, thanks for the heads up, PSBD!

I would be wary of this - the curriculum doesn't distinguish when exactly topics should be taught always e.g. sometimes it says things should be taught in year 5 or 6. Schools then determine exactly when they will teach what.

past if your conversations with teachers bear any resemblance to your tone in this thread then I don't really blame them for steering well clear of you. FWIW I have been teaching for 14 years in 3 different schools and all of them have provided clear and detailed curriculum information. Enjoy your conspiracy theories!

The difference between a university curriculum and a primary curriculum is that with a university course you get "this is what is covered, learn it or don't" so not much differentiation, no notion of personalised learning. The reason primary teachers can't tell you in the depth you want what will be covered each term is we adapt according to the needs of the child, as assessed on a lesson by lesson basis. If I say on my weekly newsletter next week we will be covering time in maths I will have some knowledge of where each child is starting the week so plan o'clock for some, half past for others and quarter past for another group, with maybe a couple of children on quarter to. By the end of Monday's lesson I will have noted that X has no concept of time and will probably need o'clock work all week still to fully embed that concept before we even start to think about half past, Y has romped through quarter past and easily absorbed the extension of quarter to work, so I can extend the following day... etc. I can't just say it is the summer term so everyone will learn quarter to. There is a huge difference between teaching something (e.g. quarter past) and children being provided with the next steps of learning, at which ever pace is appropriate for them.

That's a good point, IsItFridayYetPlease. I think personalised learning probably confuses a lot of parents. I know it did me with dd1, lol! As a kid, what we learned was the same, our achievement was the only thing differentiated. Now the input is differentiated rather than just the output. It's confusing, if you don't understand that it is going on.

The friction lies with parents who think their children should be "pushed more" and teachers who feel a child is working to their best ability already.

I think the list is useful as a general rule and to check things you may not want to discuss with the teacher, for example

My 7 year old came home having done 3 digit addition and subtraction (in columns) and asked if there was a way of doing the same for multiplication and division. I didn't really want to go there in too much detail but was interested to know at what stage they start. It seems to be quite far off so no point confusing him now!

My 7 year old came home having done 3 digit addition and subtraction (in columns) and asked if there was a way of doing the same for multiplication and division. I didn't really want to go there in too much detail but was interested to know at what stage they start. It seems to be quite far off so no point confusing him now!

However, if the teacher thought your son was ready to do 3 digit multiplication and division now it wouldn't be far off so the list would be misleading.

I understand that but as his parent I am happy for his teacher to make that decision. If it said it was a form 2 topic I would have felt more comfortable showing him what it involved etc

I don't want to be showing him things that he isn't anywhere near ready for and the list is quite a good guide to the order these things are taught

I think you've just demonstrated why teachers don't give parents these lists

Nomoreblack/ IsitFriday:

Look - don't get me wrong - some of my best friends are teachers/ my brother & s-i-l are primary teachers - but....

I do not kid - the link to curriculum is all we get.

We don't get the weekly newsletter IsitFriday which even tells us they're learning to tell time this week. Indeed DD2 was never taught how to read an analogue clock (I've had to do it at home - she's Y4 by the way).

I fear it's a case of responsible teachers are aware of the curriculum, roll it out well (possibly via LEA guided curriculum/ possibly via purchased curriculum) and signal well to pupils/ parents what they will be doing ....

but....

that isn't every school.

I don't expect that by Friday 3 p.m. my child will have mastered long division - but equally I don't think it unreasonable that parents might understand notionally when a pupil at that school should have mastered that skill: Y4? Y5? Y6?

It is the fact that teacher's hide behind the 'each child develops at their own speed' a little too long that results in children going up to Y7 without multiplication/ division skills.

I really do think parents need milestones - not to make a child feel they're a failure - but to make it clear that not knowing your times tables by age 11 is rather a problem, and really it's preferable they know them by ages 9/ 10 at the latest.

I don't think that's unreasonable - and to have been fighting for that kind of signposting from DD1's primary for 7 years is ridiculous.

Fantastic PSD

Why oh why don't we as parents get given info like this?

My dd is in y4 bit worried as she'll be tested on the new curriculum and don't think they've covered it all.Will they add the stuff not covered this year when they start the new curriculum next year?

PastSellbyDate

Your post expresses the same frustration many parents feel, including myself. Some primary schools release a termly curriculum document. Usually a few pages. It is somewhat helpful - but in my opinion generally vague and high level.

I want to see the detail. The test/assessment, the worksheet, the problems my child will be expected to solve. My ds just started a new school and I was given a detailed breakdown of high frequency words she could read AND spell. I was also told specificially the phonics sounds she still had not mastered and given cards to work with her. I was given some examples of her maths and said they would provide more detail when they had more time to assess her. She had only been there a week.

I was so pleased to be given such detailed information and to feel like the school was engaging with me rather than giving me brief summary. I know exactly what to help her with at home to support her teacher in his current weekly objectives for her.

I would want accurate information that applies to my child not some notional list. In my Y1 class I have two children who are working on parts the curriculum and over half working on the Y2 ... how helpful would it be to their parents?

I'd like both.

Info re your child is pretty meaningless without the other.

So you would find it useful for me to tell you that the class are adding and subtracting 1 - digit and 2 - digit numbers to 20, including zero even though your child is adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators and mixed numbers this week?