Year one maths

[Asleeponasunbeam]

What sort of things are your y1 children doing in maths? I don't mean 'what can your child do?' - not a comparison thread - but what do they bring home/ talk about etc?

We chose dd's school deliberately for its relaxed ethos, but as a teacher (in a very formal and high pressured primary) I do tend to struggle with myself sometimes!

I'm just concerned that they're not doing enough maths. I can't see that they will meet end of year expectations, or get even close to that. DD is very young in the year and I'm very happy with how she is doing generally. I'm worried that there will be a sudden change at y2 that will be very difficult for her, especially as there is also a mixed y1/2 class (that I asked for her not to be in) who may well be doing higher level maths.

How do I approach this without seeming pushy or judgemental? It's harder than I thought being a teacher-parent!

FWIW, I think my own school is way too pushy and formal and would hate DD to be there. But our results are excellent!

Hi Asleep:

Kind of surprised as my impressions was teacher's treated fellow teachers better than we normal parents - and were willing to talk about targets/ expectations/ performrance/ pedagogy much more openly with fellow teachers than us mere parents.

Do you think this might be more a personal issue - the individual concerned is a bit intimidated by you?

Personally I was at a school where DD1 had virtually no maths homework in Year 1 - and when she did it was colouring in patterns. She certainly didn't have work with actual numbers sent home.

I think if you are worried - have a look at on-line tutorials - there are many out there Komodo Maths/ Mathletics/ maths whiz/ Khan academy (although I'm not sure if it starts as young as this) and Mathsfactor.

We went mathsfactor (late Y2 - once it was obvious there was a serious problem - as in DD1 couldn't take 1 from 10) because it offered:

tuition

clear explanation (because it was video DDs could review instructions until they 'got it')

visual explanation (examples of concepts shown pictorially without numbers)

explanation of terminology - including imployment accepted mathematically terminology over what sometimes occurs in primary schools (i.e. DDs taught 4 + 4 = 8 is read four add four makes eight - when my natural preference would be four plus four (as indeed + is the plus symbol) equals (as indeed = is the equal(s) symbol) eight.

explanation of new methods - e.g. chunking, deconstructing, etc....

explanation of mathematical laws/ principles - commutative principle (that a multiplication is the same forwards or backwards - e.g. 2 x 4 = 4 x 2)

practice - games & homework.

Personally - in despair we opted for this and found that putting in about 1 hour over a week (so 10-15 minutes here and there 5x a week) resulted in phenomenol improvement in ability/ skill and, especially, understanding/ appreciation of number patterns. Ultimately resulted in our child doing amazingly well at KS2 SATs.

I think like anything - the difference is a good teacher. The beauty of the changes coming educationally is that if as a parent you don't particularly like/ approve of your school's approach you can in fact opt to do it differently at home.

Once the frustration & worry is removed from the equation - as a parent - you can become very relaxed about what they're doing for maths in school - it really doesn't matter - it just reinforces what they're actually learning at home. I certainly was a much happier bunny once both girls went over to mathsfactor - it got them to very solid ability levels and has more than prepared DD1 for senior school and it absolutely didn't matter whether maths was happening or not at school.

HTH

I don't think I'm treating the teacher badly! I think she's amazing and I don't think school policy on maths teaching is down to her.

Thanks for your ideas, I've read them on other threads before and will look into them if I need to when she's a bit older. At the moment, it's quite tricky getting her to do much at home, other than reading and her own personal craft projects, which is why I was wondering how much other children are doing in school.

Bumping this. My DS starts school next year - straight in to yr 1 at a high achieving Independent school. She's bright but I am concerned it's going to be hard work for her missing out on reception to 'warm up'. (she's missing reception, long story).

I hadn't even considered she'd get homework!! (Other than reading).

I have no idea what DD is doing in maths. She is a bright y1 (she can halve numbers like 85 in her head) and I had some concerns that she didn't make much (or any) progress in YR - akthough she spent a term going into Y1 for literacy and numeracy. I've just asked her what she's been doing in maths recently and her reply was 'sheets'. On pressing for more information she says she's been doing sheets on money and counting... No idea!

There's a new head since September though and she is very keen to make sure ALL children are set high expectations and pushed, so we'll see...

Hi guys:

As a number of you seem to be asking what should Y1 pupils be doing - I thought I'd just add this link to the new national curriculum maths programme: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335158/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Mathematics_220714.pdf - Y1 starts on page 6

This will outline in detail what should be covered (presumably mastered) during the course of Year 1.

In Year R (ages 4/5)- in my experience I think working on counting - getting them to a place where they can at least count to 20, if not higher (100 being the end target perhaps). Maybe start to develop an appreciation for even and odd numbers - which can be easily demonstrated just walking down your street.

simple addition (maybe to 10) with objects - using counting up method at first. So 4 smarties plus 1 smarty makes ? put them together and count them up and you get 5.

simple subtraction (maybe from numbers up to 10) and with objects - great with food. So 5 peas on your plate take away 1 (eating it up) - how many left? 4.

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playing games which involve counting really helps: snakes & ladders is obvious, but many games have dice and you move your piece forward whatever the roll of dice is.

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A lot will of course depend on the age of your child, their maturity and interest. I know 4 year olds that adore this stuff and 5 year olds (like my own DD1) that adored counting, but beyond that just didn't get it.

Having had a child who seriously struggled my sincere advice is as a parent just keep reassuring them that they'll get it in the end. It's a great lesson to teach them anyway - sometimes you have to go away on work on something, it doesn't just come easily, but eventually you 'get it' and can do whatever task. Ultimately you might become quite good at it. It gives a kid a lot of confidence in the face of new challenges.

HTH

off the top of my head I know Y1 DD has been doing her 2, 5 and 10 times tables , learning to tell the time and they've touched on division.