Maths in Year 8

[Cloudminnow]

DS is in top set for maths and struggling - at primary he always found maths hard but at secondary they aren't set differently for different subjects (would have expected him to be in a lower set for maths). We find his homework too difficult ourselves to be able to help him. Can anyone recommend a book to help us help him, or any other advice? Thanks.

How about maths lunchtime surgery, does school offers that?
IMO it is not unusual not to be able to help them with maths of that level, unless you have a some sort of background in the subject, or you can clearly remember how you did it back in your time, try and make appointment to see your DS's teacher and try to explore options, I doubt he is the only one that finds maths hard at times.
I don't know what is your DS's school practice, but at that stage in our DS's school they were mega encouraged to ask for help via maths surgery and get help one to one, I am sorry I can't offer any advice on books, but I am sure someone will be along with better advice.

Try bbc bitesize

We have the CGP KS3 Maths Revision Guide which is very helpful.

Does the school have a password for the mymaths website? That has interactive lessons covering every area of the maths curriculum.

Thanks for the suggestions! School doesn't have surgery but does have mymaths I think! I hadn't thought of that. Also worth checking out bitesize and CGP.

My DD used to struggle with maths until she got a brilliant teacher in Year 8. What I think has made the difference is that they write down the method for each new area of work and then do a worked example in their books (in a different colour pen so that they can find these sections easily). They're not just expected to remember the method for each topic. Then, they also get a set of worksheets or exercises to do from the textbook. The worksheets are particularly helpful for revision because we can see what went right or wrong. It sounds like you need to intervene, even if you're not particularly good at maths. Working it out together is one of the best forms of learning. I recommend you get the KS3 Revision Guide, get your son to copy out methods in numbered lists and write down and work through the example (keep this in a separate notebook that can be referred back to). Above all, when he has a test, make sure he knows exactly what topics he needs to know and test him yourself the night before. It's hard work, but worth it. It is really difficult to recover from losing the thread with maths at this stage.