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Three things to do to improve your child’s maths understanding

Writer's picture: Cate TaylorCate Taylor

As a UK based private tutor (in person and online via Zoom), and teaching a range of subjects, enquiries for maths support far outstrip those for any other subject.


Maths practice questions

It is so important to gain really solid foundations by developing a strong number sense. I always work with my students on (what might seem basic) number sense skills at the start of each session and it pays dividends in their confidence with trickier maths problems later on.




Three things that will help


1. Number bonds

First, develop confidence in number bonds to 10 and from then, number bonds to 100.

We talk about using the “stepping stone” of the next 10:

e.g. 7 to 100, the stepping stone would be 10.

3 to get to 10, 90 to get to 100 = 93.


2. Times Tables and related multiplication and division facts


For any non-calculator question, these skills underpin the ability to easily work out any question. Keeping times tables skills up to speed will free up space in working memory to address the more challenging parts of the question.


Many of the apps and games marketed for practising these skills have a lot of superfluous (in my opinion!) distraction. I like the free version of Hit the Button - just simple maths practice.



Times Tables practice - improve your child's maths skills
Times Tables practice with no added distraction

3. Practise the language which will allow them to understand word problems


Understanding the question - deciding which operation of maths is needed.  Learn the language.
(c) www.tutortaylor.com

Many maths questions, particularly on the reasoning papers from SATs onwards, are also about reading skills and the ability of the student to find the maths within the words. Children need to be explicitly taught the language of maths to be able to decode word problems: for example, ascending and descending order, square number, prime number, “what do we have left” indicates subtraction, “in total” indicates addition, “product” indicates multiplication.



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Cate is a qualified teacher with more than 20 years of experience teaching in schools and she has most recently dedicated her time to tutoring both online and face to face. Current and past students come from the New Forest, across the UK, Spain, Switzerland, France, Spain and Hong Kong. Cate has a waiting list for all hours outside of the UK school day but can often find space for those other time zones such as Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, Malaysia, Australia Western Standard Time, China.


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