Maths in KS1 - showing workings

[Alwaysannoyedaboutsomething]

DD is in Yr 2 and is good at maths. She is constantly doing sums in her head - adding 2 and 3 digit numbers, converting minutes to hours, working out the 13 times table, for example. She’s not a genius, she’s just old in her year and has always enjoyed maths.
But at school they are working on things like very simple column addition. Her teacher says she MUST show her workings otherwise she won’t get full marks in the SATs at the end of the year. However, it just seems ridiculous to her (and me!). She IS using the correct methods, just doing it in her head. So for example, if I ask her how to add 32 and 64, she will tell me that she adds the tens and the units separately.
Anyway... I guess I’m looking for advice - has anyone been in a similar position? I’ve asked the teacher to give her more difficult sums (that she would have to show her workings for!) but the teacher is adamant that she must show she can do it with the easy sums first.
It’s making homework extremely painful and I worry that longer term it might stifle her love of the subject.

Your daughter sounds amazing. My dd is also in Y2 and is no where near as capable in Maths. Why are you bothered about her SATS score? You know how intelligent she is - do you really need a test result to confirm that?

Thanks MrsP. Yes, I agree, I don’t care one jot about the SATs. I guess the problem is that the teacher clearly does, so is refusing to let her move on to trickier concepts etc and challenge her. I KNOW that it’s all about «mastery» and that lots of children struggle in KS2 if they haven’t fully mastered the techniques on simple calculations BUT I don’t think this applies to DD as to my mind she is already secure in them.
I just feel that I’ve tried to pit my case across to the teacher and haven’t got anywhere so am unsure whether to push it any further, OR just leave it and hope DD doesn’t get bored!

It's good practice to show her working - if she doesn't do it in her GCSEs she'll lose marks for it. Embedding it from the very beginning is the best way to make it stick.

Plus she's been told to do it as homework, so, regardless of how brilliant she is, she really ought to be doing it.

She needs to show workings. Ds had to learn to do that too as he also works out the answer in his head

My Ds ( year 7) is now doing algebra . Despite been told to show workings out all through primary . He is struggling because he needs to write down the different sections to work out complex algebra.

So yes it is worth it . Be clear if she needs to write it down so she can move on. Also if she gets something wrong she will get marks for understanding the question

I have a similar child and experience teaching children who are gifted through to just fairly good in maths. This is a common problem. Forcing children to go through the slow way when they can see a shortcut is counterproductive. The children find it frustrating and incredibly off putting. Children shouldn't be taught to use only one (algorithmic) method anyway. For example if I had to work out 145.6 17 I might write it down using long multiplication as I was taught in school but if I needed to calculate 9917 I would do it more efficiently in my head.

The problem with primary maths is that it often isn't taught by anyone who has done maths to a higher level. It's incredibly negative to insist on a single algorithmic method for doing a calculation and makes maths teachers down the line tear their hair out!

Your daughter should simply be given more complex additions which she can't do mentally in order to ensure that she learns the method. (e.g. she probably can't do 5 digit additions mentally). She can be told to write the working for the sake of SATS but it shouldn't be necessary every time.

The teacher is right because when she gets to the next stage of column addition - carrying - she will get the answers wrong if she doesn’t show her working out.

The worst I ever saw was a child being marked incorrect because they had solved an equation algebraically instead of using trial and error!

No point writing it if she’s consistently getting it right in her head. She should be being extended. If they’re not on to addition with carrying yet then she should be practising adding measures or money. Can she add three numbers mentally? Maybe try three numbers using a written method.

Thanks everyone.
I know she needs to learn to show her workings. I suppose I just think that surely she can be taught this with slightly more complex sums - for example three digits as ladyvimes and jellybeans suggest, or additions involving carrying. To be labouring the point over such easy additions does seem counterproductive. She does use multiple methods in her head and is easily able to explain them to me when asked - she’ll be picturing a number line, splitting numbers into tens and units, using number bonds, etc.
I think I may try at home with things like 3 digit addition and carrying and see if that helps or hinders! I do have an older child at the school so am familiar with the methods they use.
Thinking about it - I just also feel that the teacher is dismissing the value of the mental maths she is doing. I know the school do think mental maths is important - hence the emphasis on times tables and number bonds. So surely it’s also a good thing that she can knows, say, that 28 + 72 = 100 and this is not something to be discouraged?

"Her teacher says she MUST show her workings otherwise she won’t get full marks in the SATs at the end of the year. " Her teacher is incorrect

Her teacher is also daft to suggest she can’t have harder questions unless she can show the workings out in the smaller numbers first.

Needing to show workings out so the teacher can see she understands the method would be a better argument. As would not using column addition for 5 digit numbers if she doesn’t yet understand place value in numbers that size.

Just do what teacher says to prove it. It is good to use multiple methods to check results.

Kids have to learn to prove that they can do something - otherwise they will get in the mindset that they ‘already know it’ and make silly mistakes in exams. In science subjects not including a keyword will lose you marks even if you know the kid understands the concept. Also later on some kids will use this as an excuse for not revising - they may only have a superficial understanding but think they know it all. My point is not that your child doesn’t understand but that for many reasons it may be beneficial to get into the habit of showing it in the prescribed manner.

Also, do some schools use SATs to set children in secondary school (gateway to harder sums)?

Do harder work out of school with her.

If they can provide the correct answer they've proven they can do the calculation

You need to explain to her that the point isn't just to show she can get the answer, but to show she can use a particular method - if she is bright she should understand that?

It wouldn’t matter if schools use SATs to set in secondary. You don’t need to show your working in either KS1 or 2 maths providing you get the answer right.

Harder maths is t about just giving them bigger numbers. Challenge is achieved by getting children to reason and problem solve. Just doing calculations is a relatively low level skill and pages os sums, however big the numbers, would not constitute good maths teaching. . They need to be able to Investigate mathematical statements and concepts and, most importantly of all, they need to be able to explain their thinking. This should start as early as reception.

If they can provide the correct answer they've proven they can do the calculation

Maths isn't about answers it's about method and thought process

Which is why showing your workings IS important

All jobs have to show workings - so even if you know X has happened it still needs to be written down

Personally, I can't get too excited about showing workings age 7 if the answers are right.
But making sure she can lay out correctly, eg column addition, is helpful for later. As otherwise they aren't learning the written methods needed for later.
Mental maths is one skill, written methods another. At secondary school, too much of a tendency to try to do things in your head (or without a calculator for a calculator paper), can lead to mistakes and thus loss of marks.
If you don't practice the written methods on easier work, then often they don't know how to do it clearly when they need it for harder work.

(Speaking as someone who was always told off for not showing 'obvious' workings out).

Both of my DC now have lost engagement with maths in year 2. Showing workings I can kind of sympathise with - it's good practice and makes sure you still gets marks if you happen to make a slip. Our bugbear has been the insistence on making them draw manipulatives. I can see no earthly purpose to that except box ticking. If they actually need manipulatives using physical ones is quicker anyway. For addition recently they wanted DD to draw tens and units for both numbers, then draw the them all over again for the total. That's not even a method, a method would be counting up the combined number in the first two drawings, maybe with a circle around ten units to show you've got an extra ten.

A lot of what is written here is complete rubbish and is exactly why children are put off maths. Ignore it OP. I teach maths at a higher level and it is sometimes necessary to show working. This is not one of those times. If you can add accurately mentally you should do so. Writing out the column addition isn't providing additional information about your method of reasoning (which is actually the point of "showing your working"). It is forcing a child to use a particular method which in fact isn't the most efficient method in this case. She should just be extended. If the point of the extension is to make sure she understands column addition then she should be given 4 digits addition if the point of the extension is actually to stretch her intellectually she should be given reasoning problems which involve addition. It's also nonsense that children can't do carrying in their head. Most able Y2 children could add 39 and 46 mentally for example without the need for carrying. (They'd either add 40 then subtract 1 or they'd first add 9 then add 30 for example).

She needs to show the workings to show the teacher that she's doing it correctly. Sorry.

I believe in SATs if she gets the correct answer she will get full marks regardless of method or absence thereof. However if she doesn’t get the correct answer, if it’s a two mark question she can still get 1 mark if she has written a correct and approved method. If she does it in her head and gets it wrong she gets 0 out of 2.

I think it's nothing to do with sats really, to be able to show workings or not will be good for them.

My ds's reception teacher was a maths specialist, and first thing she made a target for my ds was to make sure he has shown all the workings. He hated it, but we pursued.
Now in yr6, I am glad she has done it. He does maths higher than yr6 level. And often makes a difference if he do it in his head or do it on paper.

The thing is this has nothing to do with "showing working". If she can do it in one step in her head there is no working. When there is a multi step process you need to show each step (even if you can keep it all in your head) to illustrate your method.