St. William of Perth
Catholic Primary School

A Multi Sensory Approach to Maths Learning 

 

At St William of Perth we use a multi sensory approach to maths learning. Physical and visual aids are used to develop children's concrete understanding of abstract number concepts. All of our Teachers and Learning support assistants are trained in using this apparatus.  The children become familiar with the block patterns as soon as they enter reception and this continues until they are ready to use pen and paper strategies. Below is a diagram showing the visual representations of numbers.

 

 

 

 

During the summer term we held a Maths parent workshop whereby we shared with parents teaching strategies and our school's calculation policy. If you were unable to attend this event we have attached the presentation notes below. Please feel free to view the resources and should you have any questions Mrs McCrae, our Numeracy coordinator will be happy to answer any questions that you might have.  

 

At St William of Perth one of our key goals is to develop number fluency in our children. We believe that if our children can quickly recall number facts this will aid them in their understanding of more complex calculations. To this end we have introduced the three minute maths challenge across the school. Every class undertakes these grid challenges which seek to develop the children's understanding of multiplication facts, division facts and number bonds. The children are given three minutes to complete their grid and if they answer all the grid numbers correctly they receive a certificate and move onto the next challenge. The children progress through the challenges in this order: x 2, x 5, x 10, x 3, x 4, x 6, x 7, x 7, x 8, x 9, x 11, x 12. Once the children have completed all the multiplication challenges they move onto the number bond challenges: number bonds to 10, number bonds to 20, number bonds to 50, number bonds to 100 and finally number bonds to 1000. Then the children move onto their division challenges which involve the children dividing multiples by a set number. These division challenges follow in the same order as the multiplication challenges. You can download the challenge grids below to help your child become number happy!

 

 

Mathematics Curriculum

 

Click on the link bleow to find out the objectives that will be covered in each year group.

Year 5 Age Expectations 

Progress in Maths Parents Guide 

 

 

We recommend the following Maths websites. Click on the links to access them.