Families of Year 5 children deserve a medal

If you were a parent of a Year Five child during school closures, I take my hat off to both you and your child. So many children across the country missed out on as much as 6 months of school during lockdown. Whatever your circumstance was at home and however much effort you put in to balancing family and work responsibilities with the needs of home schooling your children, it is inevitable that your child has probably missed out on some maths that they need to know before they transitioned to Year 6.

Year 6 is a big year

Year 6 has always been a year where the pressure increases with the end of Key Stage Two SATs tests. The Year 6 maths curriculum contains 49 learning objectives which need to be covered in just 30 weeks. This is without the added pressure of covering things that were not covered in Year 5 because of lengthy school closures.

Catch up programme

I have put together a Year 5 Maths Booster Programme which was designed to cover any essential gaps from missed maths lessons from Year 5 National Curriculum.

Do you know which areas your child excels in and which areas your child needs more helping help in?

Do you also know if the time they spent on maths during lockdown was actually productive? (they learnt something they didn’t already know)

Were they being suitably challenged?

Were they  given maths that was too hard and so were unable to access it because there were some prior gaps and they needed some support?

Every child is different and has strengths and weaknesses in different mathematical areas and this resource is to help your child with the learning material that they need.

What is included?

One of the resources in the Year 5 Maths Booster Programme is a diagnostic pack. This contains questions across all of the 7 mathematical areas in the Year 5 National Curriculum. Number, Statistics, Geometry, Fractions, the whole lot! There is a question linked to every single learning objective which your child was “expected” to know by the end of Year 5.

The Year 5 Maths Booster Programme gives you some structure. It guides your child through a week-by-week programme over 8 weeks.  If you follow the 8 week guide, complete the questions on one mathematical area each week however the course is yours for life and you can work through it quicker or slower to suit.

Take your child’s lead

If your child is unsure of a question, don’t force them to attempt it. Simply identify it as an area not secure YET. The key is the word YET. They may not know this skill now but that’s good as it’s giving you an area to focus on and it allows them to see that some learning has taken place once they are able to answer that question at a later date.

Check the areas that are not secure YET against the Curriculum Mapping Document which is also part of the Year 5 Maths Booster Programme. This will tell you which of those skills are going to be covered again in Year 6 as they are part of the Year 6 curriculum too. If it is a skill which isn’t part of the Year 6 curriculum, I have identified this as a Priority Learning Objective. I believe these are the skills that are vital to try and learn before entering Year 6 to give your child the best possible advantage.

Priority Learning Objectives

For each of the Priority Learning Objectives, there is a worksheet accompanied by a video tutorial. These are on average 20 minutes long and your child should be able to work through the worksheet while watching the video completely independently. However every child is different and some may need some support or guidance. It is down to you as a parent or carer to decide how to deliver the sessions but the benefit of the video tutorial is that it is guiding your child through the appropriate methods which they need to know by the end of Year 5 and they will them to prepare for the appropriate methods which they will be learning in Year 6.

8 Week Schedule

The Year 5 Maths Booster Programme schedule starts with the areas with the most content in them so if you’re Week 1 activity takes two or three weeks, do not worry! There are less and less Priority Learning Objectives as the weeks go on because number and calculation take up so much of the mathematical domains. The course is also yours for LIFE so you can carry out the lessons when you want to. Whether you are doing half an hour a day, three times a week or whether you’re doing a 20 minute session once a week, it is up to you. Remember you can also take these on the move so your child could even watch the videos on a car journey or while on holiday, you can find a time that suits your families schedule.

Bonus goodies

There are some amazing bonus materials in your pack.  You have a pack of  Practice Arithmetic Papers which are identical to the year 6 SATs arithmetic papers. Arithmetic skills are usually focused on first in Year 6 so it’s a good idea to have a go at those questions now and start to identify the arithmetic skills which need to be focused on.

You also have the “Five Minutes A Day Maths” resource which gives you one math problem to focus on everyday from Monday to Friday over 8 weeks. The questions are aligned to the Year 5 curriculum so it is a good way to get your child engaged with some bite-sized maths everyday.

All answers are included with all worksheets and all resources so you can give your child instant feedback.

An affordable alternative to private tuition

At just £48, the value is incredible. If you are fortunate enough to employ a private tutor you know that sessions are on average £30 and hour so this is a really affordable alternative to having access to additional help, which is completely age appropriate and designed to prepare for Year 6, while having to make no ongoing financial or time commitments.

The bonus materials are also available to purchase separately so please check out the Pocket Private Tutor shop to find something that will support your child’s progress in maths.