Struggling with maths

[Spud90]

My 10 year old has always struggled with maths but he has always had working at expected level on his reports. He’s been to maths boosters and we’ve bought workbooks at home to do but he hates doing it. He’s had maths tests this week and got 15/35 on maths and 8/35 at mental maths. He said the other kids at his table got above 30/35. I know you shouldn't compare but that seems to me like he’s really struggling. Why aren’t his teachers saying anything? Is there anything else I can do?

What is/are the problem/s? Does he find it hard to read written problems and work out the processes he needs to follow? Does he have poor recall of basic facts like number bonds or multiplication facts. Does he use slow methods for calculation rather than the more efficient methods most children move on to? Does he find it hard to understand the relationship between ways of representing numbers , ie whole numbers and decimals for example. Any one of these can seriously slow down maths processing skills and understanding in calculation. And calculation is only one area of the maths syllabus.

I would say the scores for his mental maths show that he is unable to calculate at speed and may not have internalised his times tables (and associated divisions). I would ask the teacher for another copy of the test and sit him down to complete it at home but rather than him having to do it in a set time (it’s usually 30 minutes) just let him complete the whole test and make a not of how long it takes. This will give you an idea of whether he has got the knowledge but needs more time, or really doesn’t have the knowledge.
Half of the mental maths tests include calculating %, decimals, and fractions eg 1/4 of 80. If you watch him trying to work this out, what what he does.
There’s a really good maths site
www.mathsisfun.com/
This explains how to do maths! I use it a lot with my Y5 class.