Maths scheme for more able

[BeachAndSea]

Please can anyone recommend a Maths SOW that teaches the ‘greater depth’ more able? White Rose is way too easy. Thank you.

Beast academy!

It seems to be American though? Can you use this?

Yes my son had the online version for a time and really liked it.

Ask the schools maths coordinator. They should know.

Singapore maths.

I don’t find White Rose too easy.

It is far too easy for many gifted children.

The purpose of Maths Mastery (which is the approach used by White Rose) is for children to master maths fluency, reasoning and problem solving. So it’s not just about bigger numbers or more pages of sums, it’s about mastering a concept and fluency, and then being able to reason and problem solve using the concepts. Often the bit that challenges the more able, is the reasoning where they have to explain their mathematical thinking. Many more able children say ‘I just knew’ and find it hard to explain.

I’m not sure how old your child is but a website that can provide more challenge is NRICH which can provide extension around mathematical thinking and explaining their connections and processes.

I would recommend nRich.

It’s not a ‘scheme’, rather a range of Maths problems, often deceptively simple but open-ended, that extend mathematical thinking. Deepening rather than accelerating. MC Emmett’s puzzle books are old-fashioned but similarly good for problem solving challenge.

If you are looking for an alternative approach / textbook for a full class of more able children, then https://mathsnoproblem.com/primary-mathematics-series/england-national-curriculum-edition
is a possibility? It is (generally, with some quirks) aligned to the National Curriculum and to Maths Mastery ideas but offers often more challenging tasks than WR does.

I would say that Maths No Problem, like nRich, often ‘looks easy’ to the parents who is expecting rapid progression to the curriculum content for older years. However, the focus on problem solving, reasoning, explanation and rigorous ‘proof’ (rather than applying known rules and algorithms to larger and larger numbers) does, in my experience of teaching classes skewed to higher ability, does genuinely challenge once you break the ‘the only point is to get the right answer, fast, and get a tick’ mindset.

Which year group do you teach?

Or you could just let the school get on with it?

I like beast academy. Yes it is American and wouldn’t align with the national curriculum. If your kid is a talented maths student they may have little interest in the curriculum for their age group anyway.

It does have genuinely challenging problems though, emphasis on problem solving (the team behind it started out providing teaching material geared to maths olympiads).

Our school gave Nrich for a bit but then started giving work for older years and mastery / extension for that year. They said it's not usually what they do but both kids test in top 0.5% nationally and they said they could cope with further years work at a mastery level.

Has depended on individual teachers though. One teacher said the reason they don't usually give further years work is because the Year 6 teachers don't like it.

Would suggest things like Chess really.

Exactly!