Y4 in independent school – almost no maths homework, what do you do at home?

[heiheiLondon]

Hi all,
I’m a dad of a Y4 girl at an independent school in London and wanted to ask how other families handle maths at home.
Her school gives almost no written maths homework – occasionally something online, but most weeks there’s nothing. We also don’t use a tutor at the moment. Her teacher says she’s doing well, but I sometimes wonder whether I should be doing a bit more at home so she keeps her confidence and has solid foundations for Y5/Y6 (and possibly 11+ later, if we decide to go that way).
For those of you with DC in a similar situation – little or no maths homework and no tutor – what does maths practice at home actually look like for you? Do you just leave it to school, or do you do a bit extra? If you do, is it more workbooks （Bond CGP...） / games (Numbot...) / online platforms (Atom Learning, Doodle...)?
I’m not looking to hot-house her, just trying to find a sensible, sustainable approach that doesn’t lead to battles after school. Any examples of what has worked (or really hasn’t!) for your Y4 DC would be very helpful.
Thank you!

We use Atom Learning - it's user friendly for the child (not so much for the parent!) and something they can do on their own. We set the practises, not the learning journeys as the journeys are far too easy.

We use mathsfactor. School already uses atom, and my son (year 4 as well) finds mathsfactor fun, so does it voluntarily

Year 4 maths I didn’t really care so much but she is a true baker so literally every weekend she is making a cake / biscuits etc. Some cakes are massive (feed 18 people) so I tell her to divide everything by 2 or 3. So it’s the calculations / measuring etc.

It’s only really starts in year 5 as long as she is strong in her times tables that’s fine! 11 plus is painful and probably overkill in year 4.

You could always buy some additional books if you’re worried. Also, if you are in a through school they won’t want your child to be top they will want to keep her for the cash rather than excel her to get into a senior school.

Just make sure she knows her times tables and number bonds inside out and back to front.

If I was paying for a private education I certainly wouldn’t expect to pay for tutoring on top!

TTRS for 5 minutes a day. Otherwise general chat - baking, measuring, we watch Countdown as a family. Board games. Talking about money. Algebra puzzles. Measuring things. Maths is just a part of daily life here. My husband was an Olympiad champion.

Both kids test in top 0.5% in their standardised tests.

As someone else has said, I'd not be paying for tutoring if my kids were in private education!

Thanks, this is really useful.
I also do some research on Atom and I had the same feeling about the learning journeys being on the easy side.
Do you set the particular topics for DC, or just let DC work through whatever Atom suggests that day?

This is really reassuring, thank you.
My DD also enjoys baking, so I might try to be more intentional about getting her to do the scaling / measuring rather than me just doing it for speed!
Interesting that you only really started caring more in Y5 – did you feel the step up from Y4 to Y5 was quite big, or was it a fairly gentle ramp-up in your experience?

Thank you – that seems to be a very consistent message on this thread about times tables and number bonds, which is helpful to hear.
We’re definitely working on getting those really solid without turning it into a battle.
Did you find that was enough on its own in Y3–4, or did your DC’s school also do quite a lot of problem-solving / reasoning work in class?

Wow, your husband sounds incredible – an Olympiad champion! No wonder maths is just part of daily life in your house.

I really like your approach of keeping it light with TTRS plus games, Countdown, money, measuring etc – it sounds very sustainable after a long day at school.

If you don’t mind me asking, when it gets closer to 11+ (if your DC do sit it), would you still mainly rely on this kind of “maths in everyday life”, or would you also add in more formal practice papers / exam-style work? I’m just trying to get a realistic picture of what might be needed later on.

I’ve heard of Mathsfactor but haven’t tried it. Since your DS is using both (Mathsfactor at home and Atom at school), do you feel one of them is more helpful overall for his maths – or do they do slightly different things for him?

The bond books are good

Mine also liked the bond verbal and non verbal for a bit of lateral thinking / brain training

Our (non selective, Welsh medium
state) school did something called Rhifau Rhagorol (Big Maths) every day. The daily challenge certainly seemed to keep up their motivation and progress.

There were excellent parent packs so that we were able to provide appropriate support to our kids with any maths homework that they didn’t fully understand.

Here is a link with more information (not the school that our dc went to) www.ysgolcalonycymoedd.cymru/Rhifau-Rhagorol-i-Rieni-Big-Maths-for-Parents/

Atom is more serious, mathsfactor more fun (games, cute animations etc)
i might do more Atom in year 5/6, but feel that year 4 is too early, too much hothousing for me. Mathsfactor is relaxed, with fun games. They usually have holiday challenges which are free if you want to give it a try

Times tables then leave her alone :)

My year 3 DGC is in year 3 at a state primary. She has h/w twice a week. At the moment it's adding and subtracting in columns and a bit of multiplication. I think her school are quite keen in home learning as not many other primaries round here seem to require quite as much homework.
In addition, she enjoys quizzes and likes to a bit of verbal and non verbal reasoning using the Bond books.

I set the questions myself. It's a painstaking task but I go through every single sub section and set 10 questions from each topic once a month (there are 100+ topics). This is so my child gets a balance otherwise he would default to math every day and avoid English!

He will spend on average 10 min per practise if there are 10 questions.

Atom is great as others have suggested.

if you want some written work - recommend the Schofield and Sims maths books, they are great to work through in short chunks

Does your school do sas scores? that will give you some insights.
My oldest has a specific learning disability and was behind in maths. Mathsfactor worked a treat as it explains everything really well (videos, practice). Atom was a nightmare for him, too stressful.
My youngest is advanced (sas 120), and again mathsfactor works well as he can just pick the games from higher years - he doesn’t need boosting, but he needs his brain kept busy ;) He’s find with atom, but doesn’t enjoy it, so we only do the school stuff.
Atom i think is good for middle of the road kids who need boosting- or exam preparation.

DS moved from prep school to local state primary at the end of year 4. Prep school teaching was significantly behind in Maths. The prep school was award winning and highly recommended school. However, most definitely following the model where sport rules from yr 3 onwards and they were really only leading up to training kids to do entrance exams for the public school entry age - ie transfer in yr 9.

All those wishing to try for year 7 transfer schools - round here that's private grammar schools - had tutors.