P.O. Box 1234
Worthing
BN14 7YX
tel: 01903 500606
fax: 01903 505645
How can I help my child to be more confident about Maths?
Download a straightforward guide
Further information about our software and how it can help you and your children.
Calculations 1-6 Series
The purpose of this series of CDs is to provide unlimited practice and consolidation of the Calculations skills necessary for your children to improve their mental and written arithmetic.
Each CD has between 60 and 120 separate activities. The majority of these activities:
- target a specific skill (eg add 99)
- demonstrate how to do this skill in the ‘Help’ files (yrs 3, 4, 5 and 6)
- provide unlimited practice of the skill
- give printable, computer marked answer sheets
- provide a bright, lively format with full screen graphics.
Our aim is to provide software at realistic prices which will enable children to:
- enjoy their maths
- become confident in their own ability
- be quick and accurate in mental arithmetic
- be proficient with pencil and paper methods
- are inspired to improve even more
The creators of the CDs:
- are all primary maths and special needs teachers with years of experience in both teaching maths and writing software
- have used the Numeracy Strategy as the basis of all CDs
- know how to make it easy and fun for children to learn
- aim to provide excellent software at prices parents can afford.
It's All Figured Out
A CD of worksheets that you print on paper for your children to work on with pen or pencil. It covers numbers, fractions, decimals, percentages, graphs, shape and much, much more.
There is more than enough to last the whole 6 years of Primary School - over 3500 pages, plus 7000 mental arithmetic questions, a mathematics dictionary and many fun games and problems to solve. Full answers provided.
Imaging having a maths book on your shelf which has over 3000 pages! Our most popular CD with over half the Primary Schools in the UK having a copy. You can be sure that using this CD will support your children in what they are learning at school and give them confidence in consolidating their skills.
Key Stage Booster CD
Another CD of worksheets to print out, this time aimed at Year 6 pupils approaching their SAT tests. If you want a CD which will boost your child's performance just before their tests - this is it.
What is the Numeracy Strategy?
The Numeracy Strategy was launched by the Government to improve children's mathematical ability. It is a teaching programme, stating what Mathematics should be taught in Primary Schools in each year group. It also emphasises the part parents can play alongside schools to support their children's learning.
The Numeracy Strategy is divided into year groups under 5 headings:
Numbers and number system
Calculations
Solving problems
Measures, shape and space
Handling data
Within these headings there are many sub-headings. For example, calculations include addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
All our CDs are organised in exactly the same format as the Numeracy Strategy. For example, the It’s All Figured Out CD makes it very easy to find a topic and move up or down the year groups to find work at the right level for your children. Each topic includes a concepts page explaining the work and, apart from the very simplest pages, full sets of answers. There are over 200 topics in total, enabling teachers to follow the Strategy by giving easy to use explanations and worksheets based on the Strategy. Our other CDs are specific to a year group and heading eg Calculations Year 2.
Further details of the 5 headings are found below.
Number and the Number System
Understanding of numbers and the number system goes hand in hand with calculating. The Number System means concepts such as place value, ordering numbers, estimating and rounding, fractions etc.
In Year 1 this may be learning to count to ten or recognising half of a shape. By Year 3 children will be counting in hundreds and working with tenths, whilst by Year 5 children will be expected to read and write in millions and find fractions of numbers.
All our CDs carefully develop this understanding by providing a wealth of activities as detailed in the Numeracy Strategy. By using them you know that you are working with your children in the same way as is suggested in the Strategy.
Mental Arithmetic
More emphasis is placed on mental methods of calculating than anything else in the Numeracy Strategy. Time and time again attention is drawn to the fact that a range of mental methods needs to be taught and that for any sum, children should ask whether it can be done mentally before resorting to pencil and paper methods.
There are two aspects to this: knowing by heart and figuring out. So, it is expected that children would know by heart that 6 x 7 is 42, but it is also expected that this knowledge can be used to quickly work out that 60 x 7 is 420. Pencil and paper methods should not be necessary for this.
As well as the hundreds of worksheets which emphasise mental methods, there are also over 7000 mental arithmetic questions on the It’s All Figured Out CD which can be used to test knowledge. The Calculations CDs contain many fun activities and games which encourage knowing by heart and figuring out.
Calculations
The approach to calculation has seen a significant shift with the introduction of the Numeracy Strategy. For example, written methods of doing 'sums' such as subtraction develop from 'mental methods' to 'informal written methods,' before a 'standard written method' is introduced in Year 3.
However, much of the Strategy is very similar to the ways teachers have taught previously. Our products give teachers and parents the confidence to teach and help in the right way, by showing the methods suggested and at what stages they should be introduced.
Solving Problems
There is a great emphasis on problem solving in the Strategy. Many children find this kind of work very hard as they are unsure of the mathematical processes to use to achieve the correct result. It is rather like solving a puzzle, working out what the puzzle means and then what maths is needed to solve it.
In Year 1 this might be a question such as, "What coins can I use to pay for a sweet costing 5p?", whilst by Year 6 the problem may involve carrying out several different calculations - multi step operations as they are known. Often there is more than one way to answer these questions, and discussing the problem with your children is a really good approach to take.
There are hundreds of puzzles and problem solving activities on the It’s All Figured Out CD.
Measures, Shape and Space
Children are expected to learn to measure length, area, mass and volume, and to know what units to use. Also, telling the time in Years 1, 2, and 3, is important, whilst in later years there are more difficult problems involving time and the 24 hour clock.
At each stage the It’s All Figured Out CD makes clear what vocabulary children are expected to know and what units need to be learnt.
For example, by year 2 children are expected to know that there are 100 centimetres in one metre. Measurement, in particular, is an area of maths which can easily be developed at home, where practical exercises can be carried out when cooking, in the garden, going on a day out - the list is endless, but don't forget that we now live in a metric world!
Data Handling
We are all relying more and more on data held on computer. This data can help us find information, but it needs to be understood and processed correctly. This forms an important part of the Numeracy Strategy. From Year 1 children learn to collect, sort and organise data, with an increasing degree of accuracy.
Later they use terms such as average, mean and mode to extract and interpret data.
The It’s All Figured Out CD contains many practical pages asking children to collect information, organise it into graphs or charts and then to interpret the results. How to go about this and detailed explanations of terms are found on the CD.
Key Stage 2 tests and booster classes
The Government has set up a series of targets for schools to achieve, based on the results of National Curriculum tests taken in Year 6 ( when children are 10 or 11 years old). These targets aim for most children (usually between 70% and 80%, but in some schools higher still) to achieve a Level 4 in the NCTs.
There are, of course many children who are close to this target and our Key Stage 2 Booster CD is designed to 'boost' them, by giving lots of examples of the types of question found around the level 3/4 borders and the level 4/5 borders. A quick burst on these before the tests may do the trick!
There are also many children who find Maths very hard and will achieve a level 2 or 3, as well as those who will whizz through and get a level 5. There is plenty of material on the CD to suit all of these children.
Investigations
Investigations give children the opportunity to develop their knowledge of number and to explore the interrelationships and patterns within Mathematics. They are 'open ended' tasks, challenging children to reason effectively and explain what they are doing. To do this successfully they need to be asked the right kinds of questions. Good questions include:
Is there a pattern?
What would happen if......?
Does it always happen?
What happens if you use different numbers?
A small selection of typical investigations are on our site and there are further examples on the It’s All Figured Out CD.