year 6 DD struggling with maths

[returnvisit]

I've just had my daughters parents evening and report and she is really behind with maths. She is at 5 Developing level.

She is having extra maths booster sessions at school once a week so that is helping.

She is struggling with the reasoning paper particularly.

Any advice on which resources I can use to support her? online or otherwise.

I have heard a lot about singaore maths , is that what I should look at??

I have seen a lot of question and answer books online but I was after some text book type workbooks as well that explains how she should be working things out if that makes sense.

Thanks

First of all, she is not massively 'behind'. Secondly, you should focus on the progress she has made rather than attainment.
If school does not do Singapore maths, then don't try yourself. It's very different to how you would have been taught.
If I were you, I'd focus on really improving her mental maths skills, i.e. Arithmetic. The reasoning papers assume children have good arithmetic skills, and if not, the pupil can easily lose marks.
Does she have rapid recall of her times tables and associated division facts? Can she mentally add 2 digit numbers, and use formal methods for all four operations with 4 digit numbers? Can she calculate fractions?

This website is great for explaining how to carry out arithmetic
www.mathsisfun.com

Do basic arithmetic (just lots of practice and work books or

www.propeller.education/our-products/rapid-recall-whiteboards/what-are-rapid-recall-whiteboards/

You may need to email them to see if you can buy individual 1 or 2 to try out
).

Make sure she understands the concept of ‘carrying’ in addition and subtraction (there may be online videos to explain and using blocks is helpful) and the concept of multiplication.

If it is reasoning then maybe the application of maths is hard (eg translating the ‘story’ into numbers). I find books like the one below useful (don’t be afraid to start below her level then work up). Do things in small chunks and often, especially in holidays. Good to identify problems now rather than gcse.

Maths Plus Word Problems 3: Pupil Book www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0435208640/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_cr94Bb46R8J2E?tag=mumsnetforum-21

Sorry - I just read the bit about ‘textbook-type’ with how to work it out. The heinemann book I suggested doesn’t give answers Or worked solutions but if you are reasonable at maths it is pretty straight forward. I think the number reflects the year (ie year 3).

I'm hopefully stating the obvious, but also check what method your school is using for the assessment criteria. DD's old primary used to assess against the end of the year criteria, so in November virtually nobody was at expected level as they just hadn't covered all the syllabus. So it may be "developing" is pretty good! Did the teacher not suggest what areas your DD needs to work on? it might be better to do more focussed study.

First, I would check basic maths skills (so the stuff needed for the numeracy paper).

Written methods, not mental.
Place value
Real basics + - x /
Then the same with decimals.
Fractions.
Percentages.
Times tables. (techniques even if not off by heart)

The things above underpin the skills needed for secondary. You want her to be as secondary ready as possible, that is more important than the SATs score itself.

Only if you know she can do the skill itself is it worth trying reasoning problems using the same skill. For them, I would use real life objects / draw pictures and simple numbers to help her understand how to pick out the operation required.

Look at words and how they translate to operations

• total (add), difference (-), of (x), shared (/) etc

Often with simple numbers they 'instinctively' know the operation so help translating that so she can see what she is doing.

But preparing for secondary is way more important than good marks on the reasoning paper. imo.

( Red 6 Developing might be OK, but I assume 5 Developing means at level of start year 5, and this DD is in y6. )

great advice thank you.

yes she is still working at level 5 developing, and not at year 6 level.

As a PP poster said I am trying to deal with any issues now rather than her starting secondary and then struggling.

Although I know she doesn't need to "pass" her sats, she already has low self confidence and I don't think it would help if she didn't pass as it make things worse for her self confidence.

I will go back to basics as she is struggling with the basics I think.

thanks to everyone