Teach-Primary-Issue-19.8

50 | www.teachwire.net What can you do? Display a question on the board (for example, 898 + 43) and ask children to share the different ways that they would mentally calculate the answer. Share strategies and discuss which ones are the most efficient. Checking answers When children finish tests, they are often prompted to go back and check their answers. But do they know how to do that? Providing children with strategies for this is essential: re-read the question (if it says ‘tick two’, have you ticked two?); re-do the calculations (and if a different answer is reached, complete the calculation a further time); use the inverse operation to check the answer (including knowing when this is useful); and checking that they haven’t made a transcription error when writing out the calculation or when writing the answer in the answer box. What can you do? Provide children with a set of test questions that you have completed with deliberate mistakes. Model different checking strategies, then ask your class to check your work. Interpreting the question When presented with a word problem, children often panic and add together the first two numbers that they see. While some children can see the steps needed and know what to do, others will struggle to untangle what is T he KS2 SATs maths test has three papers: Paper 1: Arithmetic (30 minutes, 40 marks) focuses on number work such as the four operations, fractions and percentages, testing speed and accuracy. Papers 2 and 3 : Reasoning (40 minutes each, 35 marks) cover the wider curriculum, from shape to statistics, and place greater emphasis on problem-solving and multi-step questions. While lessons often focus on methods like long multiplication, real success depends on broader skills, such as interpreting problems, spotting patterns and working efficiently, which help children apply their knowledge confidently. Here are some of the key skills that are often overlooked in the classroom, but are essential for children to be confident and successful when faced with assessments: Efficient mental strategies A solid grasp of facts such as number bonds and times tables helps children to solve questions quickly. For example, 70 x 60 can be seen as 7 x 6 = 42, then 42 x 100 = 4,200. Without this fluency, pupils may waste time attempting to use long multiplication. Similarly, being able to spot patterns and shortcuts (for example, 899 + 73 being the same as 900 + 72) reduces unnecessary working out and allows children to work faster. being asked. By modelling the process of reading and interpreting word problems, we can provide pupils with a structure for tackling complex problems. With techniques such as underlining key numbers, circling operation words, planning out the steps and drawing bar models, children will be able to slow down and think about what it is that they need to do. What can you do? Model reading word problems and talk through your thinking out loud to help children see the process that you are using. Try showing questions with numbers hidden while discussing the process, so children focus on Filling in THE GAPS understanding the context before calculating. Estimation Being able to check the reasonableness of a potential answer is an important skill in a test. For example, if there is a multi-step word problem that involves calculating someone’s change after they have bought several items with a £5 note, we know that the answer must be less than £5. If we are calculating the number of coaches needed to take 355 children on a trip, we know that the answer has to be SARAH FARRELL Getting ready for maths assessments can feel like eating soup with a fork, but starting small with these common errors will make a huge impact