Pearson Power Maths

[Bundlebuns]

DS (5) needs some extra support with his Y1 maths. At the recent parents evening I was told the school are now using Pearson Power Maths. I looked through his practice book and it's clear he's getting quite a bit wrong. However most of his wrong answers don't seem to have been revisited or corrected. The practice books are only £2 on Amazon so I wondered whether I should get one to go through at home? Is anyone on here familiar with the Power Maths approach?

Bump anyone?

Maybe you should talk to his teacher. I have no experience with Power maths. Can you hire a tutor or not? Perhaps you should sit down with him and go over the work until he understands exactly what he needs to do.
It might be a nice idea to buy one to use at home.

Hi, thanks for your reply. I spoke to his teacher who said not to worry but that maths doesn't come naturally to him. He hasn't completed/corrected many of the exercises in the school practice book because he's a daydreamer! (which is true). I wondered whether I should give him that opportunity at home. I wouldn't like to go down the tutor route as he's only 5.

I would. If you can, ask your teacher what they’re planning on doing in maths the following week and then go through it your self with your ds.
It will make a huge difference not only to his learning but to his confidence as well.

The more you practise maths, the better you will get at it. I used the Letts Key Stage revision guides and workbooks with dd. They also do a Mythical Maths series for more fun practice. CGP also do similar revision guides and workbooks. It may be worth going to Smiths or Waterstones and seeking which he likes.

Khan Academy is a free, online resource.

You could also look at an online maths subscription, we use Maths Factor (owner by Carol Vorderman and Pearson Education). its good because each topic has demonstration videos and it has a very clear learning path. If you log in every day for 30 days they send your kid a medal in the post. Doodle Maths, Mathletics and Maths Whizz are also quite popular.

We use this at the school I work in and my DCs have it at their school. It becomes a bit problematic when schools use it as their sole teaching method and some children are not keeping up. My school uses it as a supplementary resource and we spend extra time on a topic if we feel the children need more consolidation. My class have spent at least twice as long as Power Maths suggests on addition and subtraction, for example, as the Power Maths unit suggested a lot of coverage in each lesson.

I would speak to the teacher about how you've noticed your son is making several mistakes and asking what they do when children are not ready to move on from a topic. It may be they've already done something about it.

In answer to your question, I don't see much harm in purchasing a practice book but bear in mind it is taught via the maths mastery method which will be very different to what you did at school. It also relies heavily on certain practical equipment and visual representations that you may not be familiar with (part-whole and bar models etc). If would be good for your DS' learning to have to explain them to you though.

I’m a former teacher, now I HE, and I’ve been trying this at home. I’m very unimpressed. The layout is confusing and the language imprecise. My DD is meeting maths targets, yet struggles with this format.

If you want a practice book to follow have a look at the old Cambridge maths, very concrete, visual and repetitive.

Otherwise I’d just spent a lot of time with resources working towards understanding all four operations. Eg counting to add two groups, then counting on from a number to add etc. Print off the year one maths targets, then deal with them one at a time until you feel it’s grasped. Like this you’ll find it easy to follow.

Thank you everyone for your replies and advice. The Power Maths practice book I saw at school certainly wasn't in a familiar format. Seemed like problems aren't presented in the clearest way or are over-complicated. But I need to get with the program if this is the resource the school uses! Do you think the "maths mastery method" (whatever that is!) is effective long-term? Should I have faith and embrace this new approach?

I would and did use the Letts and CGP books at home along with Khan Academy and dd has ended up way ahead in maths.

I agree with working along side the school if you can. But maths is maths, no matter how it is taught and the more a child does the better they will be.

Bundlebuns the practice books (there are three per year) build on the text books so are used to practise skills and knowledge taught in lessons. They follow the White Rose progression which is used by many schools and can be found for free on line. How quickly you move on depends on the class not on any predetermined timetable.

Power maths is a comprehensive resource which needs utilising alongside the text books and online interactive programmes plus a number of concrete resources.

I would ask school for his finished practice books and go through anything that he may have misunderstood but make sure you do it alongside practical resources.
The more I use power maths as a teacher, the more pleased I am with this as a resource. When you teach a sequence of lessons, it goes right back to embed previous learning and then layers up to very tricky concepts. As with any resource, there are glitches and topics not done as well. Of the DfE endorsed resources, it is the best I have found so far.

The best thing to support your child mathematically is to ensure they are absolutely fluent and quick with their basic facts. So at this stage, addition bonds to 10 and 20, counting in 2s, 5s and 10s, partitioning numbers not just into tens and ones but other ways. E.g. 13 is 1 ten and 3 ones but also 8 and 5, 4 and 9, etc, finding halves and quarters practically using beads or shapes.

diagnosticquestions.com/WhiteRose
This site has a lot of good practice questions on line, and it's free, just need to register.

I think the thing to remember is that Power Maths is aligned to the National Curriculum and focuses on C (concrete) P (pictorial) A (abstract) so can build on good class teaching. It provides a much more comprehensive coverage than some of the other products mentioned.

Interested to see this thread as our primary school has apparently bought into Power Maths and will be using it from September.