Do your schools compete with Mathletics points?

[Gobbolino6]

Just that, really. My school introduced Mathletics in September. My children really enjoy it and like to get their certificate (1000 points) each week.

Overall, takeup wasn't very high, so a month ago the school introduced a little ceremony each month in assembly, where the child in each year group with the most points each month gets an award.

My DS (Y1) got the award in the first month just by chance, through having the points each week for his certificate. However, as the school uptake has increased now kids (or, probably, parents) are aware of this award, the kids have got very competitive. My DS tells me his teacher reads out the 'top' few children on the class throughout the month and encourages them to try to beat each other.

It's DRIVING ME BANANAS. DS is currently second in his year. Every sodding day he checks the scores and all he wants to do in the evening is Mathletics. He's not usually overly competitive and I think just getting the certificate each week is about right. He's 6!

But the person with more points than him is getting 4000-5000 points per week. I tell my DS it really isn't a big deal and that it's having fun and doing lots of different things with your evenings that is important, but DS says 'but Mr X says I have to catch up'.

Do your schools do this? Because I need a support group 😀😀😀.

Ignore them. Getting 5000+ points is harder as the Marths get harder in later years. Enjoy maths now make it fun.

Our school uses Mathletics, but don't bother with the competition element of it.

I would speak with the school tbh about exactly what their objectives are. Improving enjoyment and interest in maths - good. Encouraging lots of screen based competition in KS1 children - not so good.

Screens are the way learning is going, and the adults around needs to be managing the boundaries while the children are still learning how to do this themselves.

Thank you. The kids really enjoy it, and the screen time per se doesn't bother me as DS isn't hooked to a screen much, but I wonder if there's a better approach the school could be taking...something based on the certificates maybe, which can only be gained at the rate of one per week, so encourage short, regular sessions. Even if the teachers could be less involved with hyping up six year olds to be competitive, that would be an improvement.

DD1 (yr3) uses it but they get homework set on it once a fortnight and then she'll spend about an hour or so after that challenging her friends. It certainly isn't a huge competition. I can see how it gets addictive though, she pesters me to be able to stay on it longer and her interest in maths skyrockets when they use it.

I think it's a great tool...I'd highly recommend it other than the aspect the school have imposed. One of the other mums asked me this morning if my DS was as competitive about it as hers, so at least it's not just me!

Our school uses it, and I can see that DD2, for example, would be just as competitive if we had that system! However, the way it works is that they get set homework on it and she often then plays a bit more for herself.

DD3 has been set homework of earning a certificate.

It's a great little tool for encouraging children to be interested in maths.

My middle one uses it. He does compete against the others and gets certificates, which we print at home. Unfortunately the teachers don't seem to give a fig! So while they are competitive between the kids themselves it is not the school encouraging it. And I am sure there are kids in the class who haven't touched it. (In fact we know, because it shows the list of class members points)

I guess it's hard for the teachers to get it right. At least in our school almost the whole class does take part.

What sort of maths is it? I'd be interested in DS2 doing something that requires multi step calculations. His current maths homework is far too simple - times and division questions that test times table knowledge.

Thats just silly because all you have to do is take the tests which carry greater points or redo the same easy exercises over and over.

Our school gives a £10 book token to any child who at the end of the year has managed to do their thousand points every week.

Redhat that's a fantastic idea.

I'm mean, I don't let mine do the test until they've done all the exercises.

Fourarms, I'm not sure as my DS is only in Y1 so I haven't seen the harder maths yet. If you go onto the info, you can see the topics. I'm unsure how much an individual subscription costs if your school doesn't fund it.

The maths is in line with the national curriculum I believe but I think it can also be adjusted by the teachers/parent (if a home purchase). They can give access to different topics and levels.

DSs school uses both mathletics and conquer maths. Conquer maths is by far the better programme because it also contains lessons with worked examples which are also spoken to help those children who wouldn't read them properly.

There is a speak option for Mathletics, but I agree that not always giving examples and not always explaining why something is incorrect isn't helpful.

Mathletics is a good idea, but imvhe the interface and language used to describe concepts, explanations about how to do things and showing children what they've done wrong need a lot more work.