I have a 7 year old who is racing ahead with Maths, how would you keep him engaged?

[Aislyn]

My year 2 boy is currently working at a year 4 level. He really enjoys maths and is constantly asking me for maths problems at home to solve. We have been using Doodle maths app as well, and he has tested at a year 4 level (he has understanding well into the year 4 curriculum).

We will continue to use doodle at home, as well as arithmetic which he genuinely loves, but I am wondering how else to ensure he stays challenged and engaged. He is very distractible, so it is possible that his ability is not fully recognised at school.

He goes to a state primary. Would you recommend discussing with the teacher? Any other resources that you would recommend at home?

I would concentrate on enrichment rather than teaching him ahead. There is a brilliant maths enrichment website nrich I think. I will try to find you the link.

https://nrich.maths.org

There are brilliant problem activities which are really stretching and reading suggestions as well.

Definitely talk to the teacher. My nephew was like this and used to go to an Older class for maths. They did run out of stuff to teach him by the time he was 12 though!

These are some examples: nrich.maths.org/year-4-explaining-convincing-and-proving

Will the school not take him out and teach him with the senior school? Schools are used to dealing with this kind of thing. Your son is probably unusual rather than unique

You mention he is very distractible? Are you exploring ADHD? Very talented ADHDer dc can have a hyper focus on subjects of interest.

Schools don’t take children out to older year groups or senior schools any more. Not state schools anyway. The whole national curriculum is focused on keeping the class together until everyone is secure, and allegedly stretching the more capable ones by ‘going deeper’ or ‘stretching sideways’. In reality I don’t think most schools do anything to stretch the most able.

You can mention it to his teacher OP but I doubt anything will change.

Interesting thank you!

I am not exploring ADHD currently, though his profile might fit. I am just not sure of the benefit of a diagnosis.

Consider how to extend his interest into other areas where mathematics is applied - other sciences (particularly physics, chemistry) and engineering concepts, astronomy, etc. We happened to have a space engineer lodge with us when DD was little, she’s studying Maths at Cambridge now - and this is what he did, through play.

Within school, DD needed more help to develop her social and communication skills and so we focused on those there, rather than extending out her maths in the school environment

This is my understanding too: kids are kept with their class regardless of how ahead they are. I think any stretching for gifted children has disappeared too with budget constraints. I also think 'stretching sideways' is limited, in both practice and meaning.

My son's teachers made sure he had extra worksheets etc. We also got him a tutor so he could do maths he actually found hard outside of school (because he would be upset at not being stretched in maths). He's at a v good secondary now and loving doing advanced maths GCSE and looking forward to maths and further maths A levels.

I agree and the best years for DS at primary were when he had a teacher who was actually very bright as a child and so truly understood his wish to be stretched

I’ve sent you a pm with some other thoughts op.

I think @alexisccd has given excellent advice. We also focussed on sideways stretch through music (very mathematical) and other skills that needed development at primary age. Secondary did provide further stretch without us prompting.

My son was like this. I used to buy him the maths educational books to complete at home for higher age range. We were very lucky when he was 6 they kept him behind with a few other children after school for one hour a week where a secondary school teacher would come in and give them more challenging maths and they loved it. When we would walk anywhere I would ask him random maths questions that he would answer on the go. Enjoy it 😊 my sons 17 now ans although he’s still very good with numbers the passion isn’t there like it used to be 😔

Well my nephew only left school last year., so his experience is in fairly recent times. He certainly never went to a different school for maths but was always in a more senior year group apart from when he was in Year 6 and also in sixth form. But he was always given different work to do even then. When he was in Year 7 he was with the sixth formers for maths so would have finished A level syllabus in Year 9 I guess.

So his experience of primary school is not THAT recent, he left 8 years ago? I can’t speak for secondary.

my experience is both of teaching supply in primary (having previously been the maths lead at a private school) and as the parent of a strong mathematician (lower primary at the moment).

there may be a few schools who do move children in to higher year groups for maths still, but I’ve never come across it and teaching above their year group content is ‘frowned upon’.

100% agree. In my experience on primary supply there is often an ‘extension’ for those who finish quickly (which may or may not be more challenging- often it’s just more of the same tbh) or they’re told to
’help other people’ (children aren’t brilliant at this on the whole, and it doesn’t really benefit the more able child) or ‘read a book’. Plus, invariably, they sit through the teaching input which will be half the lesson and covering something they can already do.

7 years ago, he left school last academic year sorry. So was still at school in 2025. Maybe things have dramatically changed in 7 years. 🤷‍♀️. But 2 years ago he was still with an older class in secondary school.

I would look at areas that he’s not so strong in and focus on bringing those up to speed too. It is difficult for schools to really stretch the very able in one subject ime

Make sure he has a wide range of interests including sports and music (surprisingly mathsy) and that he reads a lot. Take him different places - indoors and outdoors and concentrate on him being a strong all rounder who loves maths.

I agree, go sideways or off curriculum if you can. For example looking at binary and hexadecimal and converting between them and decimal.
Look at prime numbers and how to generate them.
Also coding.

Don't go further through the curriculum - you are setting yourself up for further boredom!

Go sideways -nrich, suduko and other number/logic puzzles, those smart puzzle games, rubix cubes, chess, music, coding..

Enrichment and making sure his bright brain is not falling behind on reading, writing and spelling.
Is he also actively engaging in physical skills?
Expressing himself artistically, drawing, painting etc?

If he is keeping up with everything, help him learn a musical instrument. Maths brains often find learning music easy and enjoyable..

All work/Maths and no play/variety makes Jack a dull boy.

The Murderous Maths books are a lot of fun - similar to Horrible Histories, with cartoons and stories. Each book covers a different subject area. They start with the basics (arithmetic) and go up to trigonometry.