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Identifying misconceptions and how to address them

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Identifying misconceptions and how to address them

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Identifying misconceptions and how to address them

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Use with the 'Identifying misconceptions and how to address them' CPD

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Use with the 'Identifying misconceptions and how to address them' CPD

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Use with the 'Identifying misconceptions and how to address them' CPD

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Don't spend hours marking books

Diagnostic Questions is a world leading assessment tool that provides detailed insights into student understanding in a fraction of the time, simultaneously reducing your workload and improving student results and confidence.

25,000 Questions & Quizzes

Create your own or choose from the thousands created by teachers, awarding bodies and publishers.

Learn more

Actionable Insights

Use our powerful Data Analytics, Feedback and Planning tools to understand your students better than ever.

Learn more

Free forever

We're in the business of helping teachers. We know how tight departmental budgets are, we know the pain of change and we know how frustrating it is when a product you've come to depend upon starts charging. Well, we're giving you, the teacher in the classroom, a promise that Diagnostic Questions will always remain free. It's a small gesture, but we hope it helps.

Supported Subjects

Expected in November 2016, the ultimate GCSE Computing companion, with Scheme of Work and 1000s of questions from OCR and teachers.

750 questions from the Royal Society of Chemistry plus 1000s of others from teachers across the UK covering, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

We want to support the most popular subjects that you teach. Help us focus on subjects that will make a difference by voting for our next subject.

Resolving misconceptions improves performance

A continuous system of misconception identification provides teachers with the foresight they need to intervene effectively in students' learning.

"Good diagnostic questions encapsulate our best information about what students find difficult, and are an indispensable part of any teacher's repertoire."
Dr. Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment @UCL

"...the single greatest step forward in AFL in the maths classroom for years. I think it would be hard to find any better AFL strategy out there."
William Emeny, greatmathsteachingideas.com

"...good questions help us know more about our students' learning and help us to address misconceptions. An outstanding new resource to help us do just that."
Colleen Young, colleenyoung.wordpress.com

"Discover key misconceptions before you teach, track progress, review students explanations and quickly give personalised feedback."
Mohammed Ladak, mathedup.co.uk

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Better results, more confidence, less time

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s

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4-5 years mathematics learning trajectory

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3-4 years mathematics learning trajectory

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2-3 years mathematics learning trajectory

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18-24 months mathematics learning trajectory

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Houldsworth Valley's approach to times tables

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Houldsworth Valley's approach to times tables

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Spreadsheet to generate facts for precision teaching

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Spreadsheet to generate facts for precision teaching

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This 9 day project running from 21st June is designed to introduce basic calculator skills to pupils. If they know which calculator they need for their secondary school, perhaps they could purchase this in advance alternatively you may have a box lying around from the pre-2014 curriculum.

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Skip to content

Primary

Keeping Year 6 pupils motivated in their maths learning during the transition to Year 7 can be challenging, but we've got plenty of ways to help you.

Key Stage 2-3 Transition webinars

If you're looking for extra support to help your Year 6 class as they make this journey, watch these webinars on Supporting Key Stage 2 to 3 Transition in Maths:

Calculator Crunch... it's fun and it's free!

Our Calculator Crunch programme is a fun way to engage Year 6 pupils with maths whilst also developing their confidence with calculators so they're ready for maths at secondary school. The activities provide extra practice for Year 6 and 7 pupils in key areas of the maths curriculum.

Running over nine days each summer, each morning we release a new challenge on Twitter and on this webpage, along with a set of home learning resources.

Parents and carers can use the challenge activities with their children at home, and you can incorporate them into work you're setting for your pupils, either in school or remotely.

There's also a template you can use to create certificates for students who take part, to award their achievements.

Resources to support your Year 6 class to make the transition to Year 7

Our Year 6 Get Calculating lesson plans lets pupils test their ideas and generalisations with a wider range of values than mental and written calculations can.

Find these resources

Our Year 7 Get Calculating lesson plans focus on developing the use of calculators in a range of mathematical contexts. There's a related series of lesson plans for Year 6.

Find these resources

Our Calculator Crunch resources are designed to provide Year 7 students with extra practice in key areas of the maths curriculum, whilst also developing their confidence with using calculators.

Find these resources

You might also find it helpful to explore these Key Stage 2 extension resources.

Donate

Registered charity Number 1058911
Copyright © 2022 MEI

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Skip to content Primary Keeping Year 6 pupils motivated in their maths learning during the transition to Year 7 can be challenging, but we've got plenty of ways to help you.

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Here is a bank of curriculum linked investigations suitable for Y6-7 transition as recommended by a team from Cambridge Uni and local primary/secondary schools. Use the tabs at the bottom to navigate the strands.

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Great transition project from Lancashire gfl based around Archimedes, Fibonacci, spirals & the golden ratio. You could complete the Y7 lessons too and link to what they may learn in secondary school. I wouldn't look at the DfE materials on the same page - they are very old and the expectations are lower than now.

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The Lancashire KS2-KS3 Mathematics Transition Unit is in two parts. The first Spirals is intended for use with Year 6 pupils towards the end of the summer term. The second part The Golden Number has been prepared for Year 7 pupils. The Golden Number project builds on the Spirals project, but each part of the unit can be used independently if necessary.

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The Lancashire KS2-KS3 Mathematics Transition Unit is in two parts. The first Spirals is intended for use with Year 6 pupils towards the end of the summer term. The second part The Golden Number has been prepared for Year 7 pupils.

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Opportunities to develop mathematical thinking on shape, space, position & direction in the context of art

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On this page you will find a selection of fully-resourced lessons with a 'mathematical art' theme. The activities in these lessons will help to reinforce many important mathematical skills such as accurate measuring and constructing, visual problem solving and strategic forward planning.

Each resource is accompanied by brief instructions and photos of students' work. If you have any questions about these resources, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I hope you have found something here to try out with your students. I would love to see photos of your students' work if you do. If you post anything on social media, perhaps use the hashtag #mathsart. And do watch this space for new ideas - I have plans for a 'constructing a mandala' lesson, and one on Islamic tiling patterns too... oh, and maybe one on fractals... So much mathematical art, so little time!

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Fully resourced lessons with a mathematical art theme.

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These resource packs from STEM offer something different if you need to revisit areas of learning but want to move away from Mathematics Mastery or White Rose resources.

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A comprehensive guide, to help teachers plan lessons which match the new National Curriculum, with separate sections on subject knowledge, research articles, classroom activities, cross-curricular links and videos.
Find out more

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A comprehensive guide, to help teachers plan lessons which match the new National Curriculum, with separate sections on subject knowledge, research articles, classroom activities, cross-curricular links and videos. Find out more

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Interesting article about mitigating loss of learning over the Summer break. Red flag - it is written by Colin Hegarty who developed Hegarty Maths and is advocating for online practise of maths skills! Still valid points though!

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More than 600,000 students will be moving on from primary to secondary school this September. While many students are excited by this transition, it is almost always accompanied by palpable anxiety - from children and parents alike.

For this year's cohort, there are even greater challenges and increased anxiety thanks to Covid-19. Just as day-to-day teaching has been upended by the pandemic, so have the detailed transition plans and activities which take place in the spring and summer terms - visiting and speaking to year 6 students, meeting with primary teachers, planning and running school visits, and face-to-face support for children with additional needs.

Transition to secondary school is a pivotal moment but this year teachers are attempting to do it with their hands tied behind their backs.

The challenge of transition to secondary has always been a two-headed beast - student anxiety about the prospect of secondary school; student learning loss over the summer break.

Learning loss is a problem felt starkly in maths education given the hierarchical nature of the subject. And this year, lockdown exacerbates the situation...

The combination of weeks off school, learning loss and transition anxiety has the potential to massively stall maths progression for the year 7 in-take, and is likely to alter how secondary maths teachers plan the first half-term.

However, is a whole new approach needed? When we step back and pause, we remember that the core issues remain the same. And addressing them may need only some slight adjustments...

Tackling transition anxiety

Transition anxiety cannot be wholly avoided and the lack of face-to-face contact with new teachers and physical introductions to new spaces will exacerbate students' worries. The first step in alleviating any kind of anxiety is communication, and transition is no different.

At this time, creative methods of communication are needed between schools, students and parents.

In a recent blog, Charlotte Bagnall, a child development researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University, whose work includes a focus on primary-secondary transition, suggests: "Virtual transition work, from live tours of the secondary school and interactive maps of the building, to moderated discussions between pupils and primary and secondary school staff, could provide much needed transition exposure, and reassure all involved for when schools restart (hopefully) in September." (Bagnall, 2020)

Great efforts are being made by secondary schools to collaborate virtually with feeder schools. I have been impressed to hear about lots of virtual activities - year 6 pupils being encouraged to record video questions for current year 7s to answer, online mentorship programmes, and secondary teachers hosting and recording sample lessons for year 6 students or setting mini-projects to acclimatise them to secondary learning.

Research from educational consultants Premier Advisory Group (Smart, 2020) suggests that "buddy" systems could help reduce anxiety of pupils and their parents/carers around transition.

As they suggest: "Although 'buddies' will not be able to meet before September, there is the potential for secondary pupils who are not yet returning to school, for example those in year 7, to provide some form of support to current year 6 pupils remotely."

As well as these novel approaches, probably one of the most useful things is to schedule a video call with the parents/carers and each student who will be starting in September. I appreciate this is time-consuming, but secondary school leaders should enable year 7 form tutors (or others) to have the time to speak directly with students.

Communication between primary feeders and transition leads

Communication between teachers at key stage 2 and 3 is particularly critical over the next few weeks. Year 6 teachers will need to adopt new "markers of progress" to share with their year 7 colleagues: "Who has engaged in lockdown learning and in what capacity?" and "How has/will progress be assessed in the absence of SATs?"

The more year 6 teachers can identify where learning gaps might exist, the more year 7 teachers can provide the right support in September.

Communication is also important to help support curriculum continuity which is particularly important in a foundation subject like maths. Research from University College, Cork (Prendergast et al, 2019), found that that teachers at both primary and secondary level identified similar issues with maths transition: "A lack of continuity between curricula, a lack of knowledge of each other's curriculum and a lack of communication between both levels."

Mitigating increased learning loss

As well as anxiety about starting secondary school, the other big issue is learning loss. Research shows that the normal summer break can set back children's maths learning by two months (Cooper et al, 1996) and that t he subsequent move to secondary school can lead to a drop in maths attainment during year 7 (Henderson et al, 2017).

Although teachers and schools are working incredibly hard to ensure students are learning during lockdown, it is a worry what learning gaps might arise over this extended period, in particular, for students that have been harder to reach and motivate.

There is inevitable disparity between the amount of learning and progress children are making in lockdown. Some year 6s have been motivated and continued to work hard, others may have completed very little to no school work.

For example, recent research has shown that 71 per cent of primary school pupils are getting involved in remote learning activities, while 63 per cent of secondary students are engaged. Figures that fall even further for vulnerable pupils of all kinds, including those without access to ICT for learning at home ( Lucas Nelson & Sims, 2020; see also SecEd, 2020).

Notwithstanding the challenges above, even those students who have worked hard are doing so under challenging circumstances.

All this means that, across the board, a degree of learning loss is inevitable.

I believe that it is the setting and encouragement of a learning routine of little and often that will be the most impactful for year 6s between now and September. Now is the time to engage parents and provide encouragement to keep going with maths learning through summer.

Technology has made this easier, with numerous apps and platforms available to encourage bitesize maths practice.

If the response to coronavirus has shown us anything it is that the vast majority of teachers are able to adapt with skill and resilience, creatively using all the tools at their disposal to support their students' learning at home.

Although transition this year presents significant challenges for both primary and secondary schools, I am in no doubt that teachers will be able to ensure our new year 7 students are equipped for starting secondary school.

Colin Hegarty is the founder of HegartyMaths and education director at Sparx, which has launched a free learning at home online course to support year 6 students to develop their core number skills and be better prepared for maths at secondary school in September: www.numerise.com/secondary-ready/

Further information & resources

Bagnall: Transition years and the lockdown, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2020: https://mcrmetropolis.uk/transition-years-and-the-...

Cooper et al: The effects of summer vacation on achievement test scores, Review of Educational Research (66), September 1996: https://bit.ly/3hvbKYr

Henderson et al: Improving mathematics in key stages 2 and 3: Guidance Report, EEF, 2017: https://bit.ly/2BbdeGt

Lucas Nelson & Sims: Schools' Responses to Covid-19: Pupil Engagement in Remote Learning, NFER, June 2020: https://bit.ly/30IjCzL

Prendergast, O'Meara, Harbison: Bridging the primary to secondary school mathematics divide: Teachers' perspectives, January 2019: https://bit.ly/3d17MTN

SecEd: Study reveals most effective remote learning approaches, June 2020: https://bit.ly/3hxqgig

Smart: Covid-19 and transition between key stages, Premier Advisory Group, May 2020: https://bit.ly/2YxVAF2

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Year 6 to 7: Answering the transition challenge

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More than 600,000 students will be moving on from primary to secondary school this September. While many students are excited by this transition, it is almost always accompanied by palpable anxiety - from children and parents alike. For this year's cohort, there are even greater challenges and increased anxiety thanks to Covid-19.

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Prioritisation & Planning webinar 22/03/21

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Prioritisation & Planning webinar 22/03/21

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PowerPoint for Prioritisation & Planning webinar

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PowerPoint for Prioritisation & Planning webinar

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Prioritisation & planning - in case you missed it!

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Develop your understanding of how to teach fractions in a sequenced approach

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Spine 3 of the Primary Mastery Professional Development Materials

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Y1-6 overview and individual criteria for each year group

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Guidance for teaching mathematics at key stages 1 and 2 to help pupils progress through the national curriculum.

Details

This guidance is for:

school leaders

teachers and other school staff

governing bodies

You can use this guidance to help plan teaching the statutory mathematics curriculum in primary schools in England. This guidance:

identifies the core concepts that are needed for pupils to progress in their study of mathematics

demonstrates how pupils can build their understanding of these concepts from year 1 to year 6

The guidance links to non-statutory guidance on teaching mathematics at key stage 3.

Short videos that introduce and summarise this guidance are also available.

Teachers may find this guidance helpful in planning and prioritising the curriculum following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This guidance is intended to support teaching. It can be used alongside other high-quality plans and resources, including textbooks.

The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics has produced a range of resources to support teachers using this guidance. This includes:

Further support for maths teachers is available through our maths hubs programme.

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Guidance for teaching mathematics at key stages 1 and 2 to help pupils progress through the national curriculum.

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NCETM exemplification of the ready-to-progress criteria

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NCETM exemplification of the ready-to-progress criteria

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Including teaching sequences, suggested models & images, key vocabulary and assessment questions

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These PowerPoints include links to relevant resources and pupil-facing activities. They are ideal to be used with small groups of pupils to review, practise, and consolidate learning. The five-minute video at the foot of this page demonstrates this in more detail.

The pupil activities are intended to stimulate interaction and discussion. We suggest you use them flexibly and are guided by pupil response, repeating activities where pupils lack confidence. The ready-to-progress criteria are intended as goals for the end of the year. When used at the start of a year, you might want to use the materials from the previous year group. If you are teaching Year 4 for example, the Year 3 materials are used to review, practice and consolidate learning from the previous year.

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79 PowerPoints, each one focusing on one of the ready-to-progress criteria in the new DfE maths guidance for KS1 and KS2

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Planning and evaluation documents for Y1-6

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Planning and evaluation documents for Y1-6

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Moving on from the pandemic gives schools an opportunity to recalibrate and prioritise the curriculum. Plans will need to take into account the disruption to teaching, and to secure firm foundations before moving on to new learning.

Maths planning for the rest of 2020/21 should take account of disrupted schooling in the past two academic years rather than starting the summer curriculum as usual. Linked topics can be addressed together, starting with those from the year below.

Prioritise key topics, rather than trying to teach everything.

Children should experience a positive return to learning maths in school and messages about 'lost learning' should be avoided.

Formal written tests should be avoided in favour of devoting time to teaching that involves reconnecting with pupils, assessing informally and filling in gaps.

The flow chart and linked documents below are provided to support schools prioritise learning in maths, to prepare for September 2021. The templates should be used as working documents and the final versions shared with the next teacher in September.
We are currently working on curriculum prioritisation guidance and materials for 2021/22. They will start to be made available before the summer holidays.

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Curriculum prioritisation in primary maths

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Moving on from the pandemic gives schools an opportunity to recalibrate and prioritise the curriculum. Plans will need to take into account the disruption to teaching, and to secure firm foundations before moving on to new learning.

# data[].attributes.body
diagnose misconceptions and assess learning through multiple choice questions (use White Rose collection for primary)

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Don't spend hours marking books

Diagnostic Questions is a world leading assessment tool that provides detailed insights into student understanding in a fraction of the time, simultaneously reducing your workload and improving student results and confidence.

25,000 Questions & Quizzes

Create your own or choose from the thousands created by teachers, awarding bodies and publishers.

Learn more

Actionable Insights

Use our powerful Data Analytics, Feedback and Planning tools to understand your students better than ever.

Learn more

Free forever

We're in the business of helping teachers. We know how tight departmental budgets are, we know the pain of change and we know how frustrating it is when a product you've come to depend upon starts charging. Well, we're giving you, the teacher in the classroom, a promise that Diagnostic Questions will always remain free. It's a small gesture, but we hope it helps.

Supported Subjects

Expected in November 2016, the ultimate GCSE Computing companion, with Scheme of Work and 1000s of questions from OCR and teachers.

750 questions from the Royal Society of Chemistry plus 1000s of others from teachers across the UK covering, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

We want to support the most popular subjects that you teach. Help us focus on subjects that will make a difference by voting for our next subject.

Resolving misconceptions improves performance

A continuous system of misconception identification provides teachers with the foresight they need to intervene effectively in students' learning.

"Good diagnostic questions encapsulate our best information about what students find difficult, and are an indispensable part of any teacher's repertoire."
Dr. Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment @UCL

"...the single greatest step forward in AFL in the maths classroom for years. I think it would be hard to find any better AFL strategy out there."
William Emeny, greatmathsteachingideas.com

"...good questions help us know more about our students' learning and help us to address misconceptions. An outstanding new resource to help us do just that."
Colleen Young, colleenyoung.wordpress.com

"Discover key misconceptions before you teach, track progress, review students explanations and quickly give personalised feedback."
Mohammed Ladak, mathedup.co.uk

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Better results, more confidence, less time

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Nrich problems and investigations linked to the maths national curriculum objectives for EYFS - Y6

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Develop your subject knowledge in teaching fractions, decimals and percentages through this 6 week self-study programme

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This course has been certified by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles. Find out more.

Make learning fractions, decimals and percentages easier for your students

Often, when teachers are asked which maths topic they find the most difficult to teach and for their students to learn, teachers say fractions.

On this course, you will explore why they find fractions difficult and consider new approaches and methodologies for teaching them that are easier to grasp for your students.

You will learn how to avoid teaching the subject in isolation as you approach fractions, decimals and percentages as three interconnected topics. This will help to give your students context and give them a deeper understanding of the maths structure behind fractions.

What topics will you cover?

What is a fraction? The importance of considering the 'whole'

Multiplying fractions, decimals and percentages

Adding and subtracting fractions, decimals and percentages

Dividing with fractions and decimals

Problem solving with percentages

Application of fractions, decimals and percentages across the wider curriculum

Who is this accredited by?

The CPD Certification Service:

The CPD Certification Service was established in 1996 and is the leading independent CPD accreditation institution operating across industry sectors to complement the CPD policies of professional and academic bodies.

Learning on this course

You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

Identify why students find the concept of fractions demanding.

Develop strategies to enable students to demonstrate their understanding, and use, of fractions.

Explore the links between fractions, decimals and percentages and become fluent in their application in differing contexts.

Demonstrate an understanding of the mathematical structure and not just teach the 'tricks'.

Solve mathematical problems in context.

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

Who is the course for?

This course is specifically designed for secondary school teachers and educators who are not specialised in maths, but who are wanting to learn mathematical methods and improve their understanding of the subject.

It's particularly suitable for new teachers and those studying teaching as a profession. Primary school teachers may find this course useful to understand how the mathematics curriculum progresses further in secondary school.

What's included?

This is a premium course. These courses are designed for professionals from specific industries looking to learn with a smaller group of like-minded individuals.

Unlimited access to this course

Includes any articles, videos, peer reviews and quizzes

Tests to validate your learning

Certificate of Achievement to prove your success when you're eligible

Download and print your Certificate of Achievement anytime

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps, but you can complete them as quickly or slowly as you like

Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities

Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners

Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course

Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning

Whenever you're ready, mark each step as complete, you're in control

Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Learner reviews

Learner reviews cannot be loaded due to your cookie settings. Please activate all cookies and refresh the page to view this content.

Do you know someone who'd love this course? Tell them about it...

You can use the hashtag #FLSTEMMathsKnowledge to talk about this course on social media.

More courses you might like

Learners who joined this course have also enjoyed these courses.

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Teaching Percentages, Decimals & Fractions - FutureLearn

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This course has been certified by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles. Find out more. Often, when teachers are asked which maths topic they find the most difficult to teach and for their students to learn, teachers say fractions.

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Techniques and strategies to use in the classroom

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A Whole School Approach to teaching times tables

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A Whole School Approach to teaching times tables

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A quick read from the NCETM using Jenny Field's research project

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How do you help children learn their times tables? Regular practice? Or lots of lessons that expose the mathematical structure and connections within tables? Or maybe a mix of both?

Over the past few years, more than a hundred schools in London have participated in a research project, run by their local Maths Hub, which has formalised a mix of both approaches.

In each year, from 2017/18 onwards, teachers from groups of schools attended a series of CPD sessions run by Professor Jenny Field from the School of Education at the University of Greenwich. They started to experiment with a whole-school approach to times tables learning designed by Prof Field. Experiences were shared within the group as the year progressed and schools tailored their approaches to fit in with local factors in their own schools. In most schools, the activity was concentrated in Years 2, 3 and 4, but elements were also tried out in other classes. As a result of the activity, almost all schools have adopted new times tables learning practices, consistent across year groups. The project has been organised every year by the London South East Plus Maths Hub and funded, as part of the wider Maths Hubs Programme, by the DfE.

Exploration and practice

The broad shape of the approach used in the project is three-fold.

In each class, a whole half term is devoted to a new times table.

Within that half term, three whole lessons are devoted to exploring the patterns and connections within the new times table.

Three or more times a week in every class there's a five- to ten-minute 'retrieval practice' session, including one or more of the following: games, counting-stick work, step counting using manipulatives, chanting and technology-based, quick-reaction exercises.

Each school was also encouraged to decide on, and follow consistently, key teaching components, such as:

the order that each class encounters each new times table

how multiplications are presented in writing. For example does the 6 times table appear as 1 × 6, 2 × 6, 3 × 6... or 6 × 1, 6 × 2, 6 × 3... ?

linking each new times table, at the outset, to the real world.

More than just recalling

Prof Field has written about the project in two articles for the Mathematical Association (see links at the bottom of this article) in which she also discusses what is meant by, and what we understand by, the terms 'memorisation', 'rote-learning', 'recall', 'learning by heart', and 'automaticity'.

Behind her advocacy of a mixed approach to times tables learning is a belief that children should be able to go further than merely recall multiplication facts.

'We want children not only to recall that 7 × 4 = 28, but more important know commutative and inverse facts, mini and mega facts, e.g. 70 × 4 = 280 and 0.7 × 4 = 2.8; the distributive law, e.g. (5 × 4) + (2 × 4) = 7 × 4; doubling and halving facts, and also know that 4 × 7 is the same as (5 × 7) - 7'

Case study schools

In Prof Field's articles, teachers from two of the schools that took part in the project talk about their experiences.

Sunita Vyas, maths lead and class teacher at Foxfield Primary School, Woolwich.
'We knew that collectively we needed to embed a systematic way of teaching these skills, ensuring sufficient opportunities for practice and recall.
'Being able to network with other maths leads across the hub was particularly useful, giving leaders the opportunity to discuss progress and challenges we faced... The fact that the programme ran over a year aligned well with our research-based practice within the school.
'Explicitly taught times tables sessions are now integrated into the school timetable and happen outside maths lessons two or three times a week.
'The focus on these lessons is developing conceptual fluency through the array hundred squares and other manipulatives, exploring patterns and structures and allowing children to represent and manipulate multiplication facts.'

Allie Day, class teacher at Red Hill Primary School, Chislehurst.
'We have a consistent framework for weekly times tables across the school as well as a manageable system to assess the children's progress via online assessments by class or child. Teachers and pupils are able to see the multiplication facts they need to still work on. There is an excitement around times tables in the school now, which gives me hope and encouragement for the future.
'The start of each new half term is the start of a new times table, and the children look forward to drawing pictorial representations and finding images for their displays. Times tables are also taught as a mental starter on a regular basis, maintaining children's fluency. Maths lessons on the focus times table are more exploratory and the children are beginning to develop their explanation and reasoning.'

Read Jenny Field's first article, published by the Mathematical Association in spring 2020, and her second article, published in spring 2021. Both links will download a PDF of the article.

Image in article provided by Redriff Primary City of London Academy, one of the schools that took part in the project

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times tables; maths hubs; primary maths; london;

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Whole-school approach to learning times tables

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How groups of primary schools have been introducing a twin-track approach to times-tables learning

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Case Study from Jenny Field's research project

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Case Study from Jenny Field's research project

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A whole school approach to teaching times tables part 2

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Explore Jenny Field's research project on teaching times tables

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Explore Jenny Field's research project on teaching times tables

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A whole school approach to teaching times tables part 1

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Quick guide to calculating with fractions for teachers & teaching assistants

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Maths Skills Audit for colleagues in KS1 & 2

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Maths Skills Audit for colleagues in KS1 & 2

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Please feel free to edit for your setting as appropriate

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How can we maximise opportunities to develop children's mathematical thinking?

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Developing Problem Solving and Reasoning

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How can Cuisenaire rods help children to understand equivalent fractions?

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Representing problems to develop understanding

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Recording Sheet for Counting Stick video

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Recording Sheet for Counting Stick video

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Use this to record your thoughts on the techniques Nichol uses

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Recording sheet for counting stick video

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Complete after engaging with Teaching Times Tables part 2

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If you know your 1x, 2x, 5x& 10x tables there are only 21 facts you need to learn.

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Instructions for teaching Rolling Numbers

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Adding power to your teaching

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Using Worked Examples - ‘my turn, our turn, your turn’

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Education Endowment Foundation self assessment guide

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Education Endowment Foundation self assessment guide

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RAG rate your schools against the recommendations in the 'Improving Maths at KS2 & 3' guidance report

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Affordable, high quality, maths specific tutoring

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Affordable, high quality, maths specific tutoring

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Mathematics, teaching, resources, schools, worksheets, activities, teacher, KS1, KS2, KS3, KS4, GCSE, A Level, FE, CPD, mastery, tutoring, virtual school, tuition, online tutor, online tutoring, E-learning