What age would you say this math work is for?

[Fenicottero]

We've had some work come through today that's a different level than what we're used to. What school age would you say these questions would be for?

"There are 12 eggs in each egg tray and I bought 11 trays.
I used 38 eggs this weekend, how many full trays do I have left now?"

"I need to buy enough whiteboards for 273 students and there are 25 in a pack. When the
packs arrive 17 whiteboards are damaged.
How many whiteboards are undamaged?"

"Mum set off at 5:55pm. She arrived at her destination at 7.34pm. Mum had estimated that
the journey would take her 2 hours and 16 minutes.
What is the difference between her estimated and actual travel time?"

I teach year 5 and they're the sort of problems that I would do my class - and that quite a few would find tricky.

I solved the time one by breaking it up like PurplePansy05. For the first part, it helped me to visualise the clock face (I usually do this when I'm working out real life time problems, not just in the classroom).

Agree with VashtaNerada. My top set year 5 could do this now fairly swiftly as a mental arithmetic exercise, but would probably have been able to work it out using paper in year 3. With guidance from me, DC could probably have done it in year 2, but not as an independent piece of work.

@Hercwasonaroll

By 10, they’re doing algebra.

Meaningless statement. Algebra can be f +f =2f, my 3yo can do that.

Meaningless to you maybe. Would like to see your 3yo do quadratics.

It's not just the size of the numbers but the question-style. They are two-step problems, so you have to use the information in the first step to generate an answer that is needed to solve in the second step.

There is always a spread of ability in a class so all the previous answers would be correct: probably Year 5, possibly more able Y4s or lower attaining Y7s.

In many, many years I think I've taught one Year 2 who would have been able to have a good stab at these independently and there will be a lot of adults who couldn't solve them.

Y4

10 year old aren't doing quadratics.

@Hercwasonaroll

10 year old aren't doing quadratics.

DH and I were at age 10. So were our DCs. U.K. schools are not the best at maths. We teach advanced math concepts much earlier in France.

What's your point? This is a UK website asking for a UK take on some work.

"doing algebra" isn't a good statement to make. It's too broad and doesn't mean the maths is any more difficult than 1+1=2.

Does anyone have an example of how they would work out the time question? I'm curious as to whether I've done it the simplest way.
An adult who’s confident with maths would have their own simplest way, but to explain it to a child I would draw it using a blank number line.

Here’s my child-friendly method.
What kind of person estimates that their journey will be 2 hours and 16 minutes? 😂

@Hercwasonaroll

What's your point? This is a UK website asking for a UK take on some work.

"doing algebra" isn't a good statement to make. It's too broad and doesn't mean the maths is any more difficult than 1+1=2.

Hey you rolled up and attacked ME all because I answered the OPs question “what age would you say this math work is for?” And I answered age 8-9 because by 10 doing algebra.

Perhaps you need to consider what YOUR point is because all I see is nitpicking my response to OPs question for all to answer in this thread is that the math example given by the OP is for ages 8-9.

And I answered age 8-9 because by 10 doing algebra

And my point is that doing algebra doesn't necessarily come after questions like this. It could come before or alongside.

@Hercwasonaroll

And I answered age 8-9 because by 10 doing algebra

And my point is that doing algebra doesn't necessarily come after questions like this. It could come before or alongside.

But the “questions like this” only require the most basic maths skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. So your point is that a child can learn algebra before learning addition, subtraction, multiplication and division? Which is an impossible point. Are you quite sure you have ever learned algebra yourself?

This is the kind of work my ds3 is doing and he is top set year 4.

😂 Of course I know maths, I'm a Secondary maths teacher!!

The second question you put was given to my 11 year old (primary 7 Scotland) for homework a few weeks ago, so 10/11?

"Mum set off at 5:55pm. She arrived at her destination at 7.34pm. Mum had estimated that
the journey would take her 2 hours and 16 minutes

Please get your child to write "Mum was done for speeding".

My dd y4 couldn’t do that. My y5 dd could but would need to think about it carefully!

You can do algebra that’s much easier than these challenging questions. For example:
🍪+🍪=20
🍪+🍭=13
What is the value of 🍭?
Very easy Year 2 level algebra.

No way could my yr2 child attempt this (Mid ability). Way to dent their confidence. Way harder than any sats practice papers we’ve done.

As other pp have said, it’s probably a mistake - we all make them.
If the teacher is shielding, she may lwell be setting work for other year groups too and has simply accidentally put the older children’s work in the wrong place.

Pretty sure these are Y5 Twinkl word problems.

I agree with @Hercwasonaroll btw. I’ve taught simple algebra in Year 1.

I decided to Google the whiteboard problem and found it on a school website.

It was a twinkl year 4 problem. It was a 3 star worksheet so aimed at more able year 4s.

My higher ability yr 3 would go into melt down faced with this at the moment. But then he currently goes into meltdown if asked to write more than one word answers or engage his brain. Lockdown has not been great ! I think very very hard for yr 2.