Supporting Maths

At Staple Hill, children in KS1 have 4 maths lessons a week and children in KS2 have daily maths lessons. The emphasis is always on making maths fun, and we work hard to ensure they feel confident about using the skills they learn in the classroom in real-life situations.  Using maths in this way helps boost their motivation and understanding, as of all the subjects we teach, maths is the one that we need to survive everyday!
Encourage your children to have fun with maths by:

  • Measuring and recording their height and using the information to work out how much they’ve grown;
  • Keeping them busy when travelling by challenging them to find the largest numbered bus, or guessing how high they can count between one end of the road and another;
  • Showing off their skills whilst out shopping by working out the cost of their favourite 3 foods, working out the change or working out how much money can be saved by buying ‘3 for 2’ or ‘buy one, get one…’ offers;
  • Asking them to help with weighing and measuring when you are baking, or converting cooking times on the microwave into seconds rather than minutes;

Challenging them to find as many different 3d shapes as they can in the kitchen or bathroom.

Every maths lesson at school starts with a quick ‘mental maths’ warm up, where we focus on learning certain facts by heart, and working things out quickly in our heads. Help support your child in developing their skills by thinking of simple, enjoyable activities that can help them remember difficult maths facts.

Get involved by:

  • Making silly songs or rhymes to help them learn times table facts;
  • Display important facts in prominent places (next to the mirror, on the fridge door, on the back of your seat in the car);
  • Say them in a different voice i.e. low or squeaky, or in the style of a celebrity;
  • Put actions to facts i.e. clapping or jumping
  • Use everyday objects (i.e. buttons or lego) to illustrate groups and build on them to make multiplication facts
  • Speed tests – how many can they get right in 60 seconds?  Can they improve on their previous score? Can they beat an older brother or sister?

Here we are showing a range of useful documents/links to help you support your child at school with Maths.