At St. Gregory’s Catholic Primary School we are dedicated to promoting enthusiasm and enjoyment of Mathematics through the provision of a range of experiences which enable all children to achieve, develop, maintain and stimulate their curiosity and interest. We place great emphasis on encouraging children to talk about their ideas in mathematics and to reason mathematically, using a wide range of vocabulary. Developing the children’s confidence and accuracy with their understanding and recall of mathematical facts and knowledge and the application of these skills and concepts to real-life problem solving contexts is also at the heart of our teaching and learning. It is imperative that the adults surrounding children, both in school and at home, also encourage pupils to see the value and purpose in all maths, putting learning into context within our world (yes, that includes Roman Numerals!).

A typical mathematics lesson

For three mornings per week, we do a 'Maths Blast', which consists of the children practising four different maths objectives in a problem solving or reasoning context. It is this continual recapping of a variety of prior-learning that helps to keep learning fresh in mind. For two days per week, we do basic arithmetic, recapping the basics in number, including varying methods. 

The daily mathematics lesson lasts approximately sixty minutes. There is a great emphasis on children talking about mathematics and on using mathematical vocabulary. Mathematics resources such as counters and Numicon are used to provide children with a range of images to help develop their mathematical understanding. Although children learn to record their mathematical learning, some lessons are practical and some even take place outside. It is important to relate learning within mathematics to the real world, including the outside environment, and learning in other subject areas. Therefore, topic work will be included where it usefully supports mathematical investigations or learning in a cross-curricular setting, i.e. Timelines of historical events etc.

Curriculum Objectives for Year 5 Maths

Please see the attached ‘Maths Curriculum Objectives’ document for guidance on what exactly is expected of learning under the National Curriculum.

How can you help your child’s maths learning?

One of the most valuable things that you can do is to talk to your child about their maths learning. Ask them what they have been learning in class and encourage them to explain. We all use maths in our everyday lives which means that there are plenty of opportunities to help your child with their maths learning, by involving them in everyday activities. Here are some possible ideas which you could use:

1. Help your child to develop quick recall of multiplication and division facts for tables up to 12 x 12.
2. Count forwards and backwards in jumps of the same size (eg. 6, 7, 8, 9, 25) and so on. Physical activities such as skipping and playing catch could be incorporated to encourage motivation. Don't always start at the beginning number either - pick a number at random and begin your jumps from there!
3. Look for numbers in digits and words in the real world (eg. posters, books, comics, on buses, cars, road signs, price tags, bridges) and ask children to read them. Children might also want to photograph them.
4. Talk about the shape of 2D and 3D objects and discuss their properties. Try and identify different examples of 2D and 3D shapes in the environment.
5. Ask your child to help when you are using money in practical, real-life contexts (eg. paying for items in a shop). Ask your child to work out how much the items might cost, totting up costs as you shop, and predicting how much change you might receive.
6. Ask your child to help with tasks such as measuring and weighing ingredients or when measuring the length or height of an object. Use metric units of measure. Converting between measurements is key too - mm to cm, ml to L and vice versa.
7. Help them to understand time, reading and interpreting both digital and analogue clocks. Involve them with dates and diaries, knowing the calendar months, days in a year etc. Ask them to calculate time intervals (eg. ‘We left the house at 9:55am and we returned at 3:35pm. How long were we out for?’).
8. Help your child to read and interpret timetables by asking them to use a magazine, bus or train timetables, or the internet to find out about when TV programmes, films or Netflix series are on, and how long they will last/how much time they will need to set aside for watching.
9. If planning journeys, involve your children, using directional language, including angles and coordinates. 
10. Ask your child to estimate the total price of items when shopping by rounding prices mentally to the nearest pound or ten pence.

Times Tables Facts

Children who have mastered their times tables gain a solid foundation in mathematics that will help them throughout their progression within the subject. The national expectation is that every child must be able to answer any times table question mentally by the end of Year 4. Children are expected to know all times tables up to 12 x 12, the facts in any order (eg. 6 x ? = 42 or 42 ÷ ? = 6) and related division facts (eg. 6 x 6 = 36 so 60 x 6 = 360, and 3600 ÷ 60 = 60) and apply this knowledge to other calculations.

All children in Year 5 are expected to practise their times tables regularly as part of their home learning. From January 2018, all children will have their own TimesTablesRockstars account, which will become a big part of our maths learning. Children should log in very regularly to build their confidence in multiplication tables and related division facts. We will have a class leaderboard, to see who can complete the most facts in 60 seconds! Children do not need to sit down for extended periods to learn their times tables – 5 minutes practice every day is enough. This could involve playing times tables games on their home computer, an iPad/Android app, chanting times tables whilst playing catch or simply challenging them to answer questions on the drive to school!

Below is a list of websites that your child could use for practising their times tables:

WEB SITES FOR MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION GAMES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/ma13tabl-game-tables-grid-find 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/maths/multiplication/play/popup.shtml 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/ma10mult-game-fridge-magnet-multiplication 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/ma10mult-game-problem-solving-with-multiplication
http://www.teacherled.com/resources/trainmaths/trainmathsload.html  

Link to TimesTableRockstars login: https://ttrockstars.com/beta/ 

TimesTableRockstars is also available on most portable devices, including Apple, Android and Google.