Today’s very well attended coffee morning focused on introducing our Primary Stages of Progression for Calculation to our parents.
The Primary staff spent a lot of time developing a document that clearly explains how we make sure our students move towards formal methods of calculation, but by making sure they have a deep understanding of what they are doing. The document highlights how we move from practical maths to formal pencil and paper method for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
The document is designed to be a tool for supporting your child with their calculations and to take some of the stress out of homework. Some of the other tips shared on how parents can support their children with deeper understanding included:
- Ask questions about the method they are using
- Ask them to explain their answers
- Ask them to convince you about something from their work
- Make an intentional mistake and see if they can spot it
- Cover numbers in a calculation and see if they can work out what is missing
- Show them a previous method and see if they understand it and can change it into their current method
The feedback from today’s session was good and there were some great suggestions about future coffee morning topics.