Hints and tips on how to boost your child's maths with our new White Paper Report

We have created a brand new White Paper Report containing loads of hints and tips on how to boost your child's maths. From activities that can be incorporated into your everyday lives to tips on how to motivate your children to do there homework. We also look at the science behind so called brain foods and why exercise is a great way to de-stress and refocus during revision.

Just click on the link here for full access to the report and let us know what you think.

http://issuu.com/tenticks/docs/help_your_child_excel_in_maths

The 10Ticks Team

Try out 10ticks brand new maths game

Hello,

At 10ticks we have been working hard creating new and fun ways of practicing maths. With our brand new maths game you can test your maths skills against the clock and see how many right answers you can get in 30 seconds. Currently the 10ticks office high score stands at 12. Have ago for yourself and see if you can beat our efforts.

http://goo.gl/qKH0pd

Let us know what your high score is and what you think of the new game.

Many thanks,

The 10ticks Team J

What a primary school teacher thinks of the new National Curriculum

The new national curriculum arrived with us all in September where did you look first? I looked at year 5 and 6, the year groups where I teach maths. What had changed? What were the raised expectations? Thinking of the least able pupils how would they cope with the new demands? After that I looked at the beginning, at what I now think are the three key points of the new curriculum, mathematical fluency, reasoning and problem solving.

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately…

What does fluency mean? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as the ‘ability to express oneself easily and articulately’. Google’s definition includes the synonyms, ‘fluidity, effortlessness, ease, rhythm’. Wikipedia’s definition is ‘Fluency (also called volubility and loquaciousness) is the property of a person or of a system that delivers information quickly and with expertise.’ The latter definition is the one I believe fits best with fluency in a mathematical context. I want my pupils to be able to deliver the answers to complex problems demonstrating their expertise and understanding, to be able to do this quickly they need to have the facts at their fingertips, rather than counting all the time. So often I feel that they fail to see the connections between the different things that I teach, they see them as isolated from each other rather than integrated as I see them.

I've done the investigation when you add two odd numbers is the answer even or odd? Pupils have correctly established that the answer is even and yet they will calculate 53 + 51 and give the answer as 93 and fail to realise that cannot be correct for many reasons, odd + odd is even, the units needs to be 4, slightly more than 50 plus slightly more than 50 must make slightly more than 100.

Having identified the problem what strategies could I employ to support pupils?  I will be having a fact slot at the start of every lesson, drilling children in the number facts not only to 10 but also to 9, 8, and so on so that they know that 3 + 4 is 7 rather than calculating it. It’s not 1950’s education where drilling without understanding was the norm I want children to investigate to find the solutions but then practice to get the knowledge at their fingertips. I’ll be really emphasizing the even plus odd must be odd much more. Once 3 + 4 = 7 is firmly established I’ll be expanding it to 30 + 70 and 300 + 700 then to decimals 0.3 +0.4 and to fractions 3 ninths add 4 ninths, then to algebra 3a + 4a =.

In this way I hope that their ‘mathematical fluency’ will develop and they can answer increasingly complex problems with conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.

Julie Gallimore, Primary School Teacher

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from 10ticks!

Merry Christmas everyone hope you have all had a great year! Check out our Christmas video below which highlights some of the major changes to 10ticks over the last year and our plans for the next year.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from the 10ticks Team :)

Free Christmas Maths Worksheets

Christmas is just around the corner and to celebrate we are giving away some free Christmas maths worksheets. These are great fun and contain lots puzzles and games that are fantastic for consolidating basic maths skills. These are available to both parents and teachers with access to nearly 30 worksheets in total, perfect for keeping the kids busy over the Christmas break.

To get access to our free Christmas maths worksheets all you have to do is click on the link below and signup.

http://www.10ticks.co.uk/christmasworksheets/

Let us know you think of the worksheets.

Merry Christmas,

From the 10ticks team

White paper report on the UK’s new National Curriculum

At 10ticks we have been working hard creating and mapping maths resources for the new Curriculum set to come in next year for the UK. We also wanted to help teachers understand the new National Curriculum changes and what it will mean for their school. this is why we created a White Paper Report outlining the major changes and how best to prepare for them. It also gives examples of other countries experiences with Curriculum changes and what we can learn from them.

To view the White Paper Report just click on the link below.

http://issuu.com/tenticks/docs/whitepaperreport

Let us know what you think of the new National Curriculum and if you think the changes are a good idea.

Thanks,

The 10ticks team

Brand new maths worksheets available from 10ticks

We recently launched our brand new Annual Maths Worksheet Licence, which contains more than 3700 maths worksheets in one package. This covers every topic from Level 1 to Level 10 in the UK Curriculum, plus has maths worksheets ready for the new Curriculum set to come in next year.

The new Annual Maths Worksheet Licence is going to revolutionise the way we deliver our maths worksheets, giving schools and teachers more choice than ever! We have included 1100 brand new maths worksheets in the Annual Licence giving teachers more choice and flexibility. These build on our previous award winning maths worksheets to create an even stronger range of resources. Our maths worksheets comprise of 4 types of learning experience:

•          Traditional exercises to consolidate basic skills taught.
•          Investigations to let students explore mathematics at their own pace.
•          Puzzles involving key concepts centring around fundamental mathematical skills.
•          Games – Fun ways of reinforcing key skills without the monotony of repetitive exercise.

One of the biggest improvements we have made for our maths worksheets is the way you can search through them. We have created a brand new Search Tool, which allows you to search through this vast resource of maths worksheets in a matter of seconds, allowing to find exactly what you need when you need it. This will be a great time saver for teachers and will help take the stress out of find resources.

To find out more about what our new Annual Maths Worksheets Licence has to offer please visit http://www.10ticks.co.uk/mathsworksheet.aspx for more details. Alternatively you can contact a member of the 10ticks team and we will be happy to help.

Many Thanks,

10ticks