For a child to become truly confident and efficient with any calculation procedure, they need to develop a strong sense of number, learn certain facts and develop their speed of recall. Mental skills are developed alongside all written procedures and complement them greatly. Mental skills and strategies are explored in class and children are shown a variety of ways to arrive at answers ‘in their head’. It is important that children are encouraged to rehearse these skills at regular intervals and certain facts are expected to be learnt and recalled instantly.
Our Numeracy Passport and Traffic Lights outlines facts that need to be learnt during the course of the child’s schooling from the beginning of Year 1. The speed with which a child commits these to memory will vary from child to child. Therefore these facts are not assigned to a particular year group. The pupil record sheet provides a personalised record for each individual and monitors their rate of progress. The expectation is that every child will have achieved a Platinum award by the end of Year 5. Partnership with parents will be a crucial element of this initiative.
Examples of the objectives and prompt questions can be found here.

1. 'Traffic Lights' Parent Objective examples

2. Silver Parent Objective examples

3. Platinum Parent Objective examples

4. Gold Parent Objective examples

5. Diamond Parent Objective examples

6. Bronze Parent Objective examples

In addition class teachers/year groups will, from time to time, send home additional Internet links and suggestions to help reinforce the embedding of these basic skills. Short, regular, stress-free assessments of your child’s progress will be made in class and recorded on their personal sheet. These will be sent home for you to check progress once a half term. Rewards will be given for effort and progress with a certificate being awarded when a whole stage has been awarded.
One of the most effective ways you can help your child at home with maths is to support in learning and meeting their specific targets from the passport. Your child will be initially tested on their recall of an objective after it has been a focus for their home learning. After successfully recalling the objective within the time limit further tests will be made without rehearsal or practice (4 – 6 weeks between 1st and subsequent tests) to ensure that the rapid recall of these facts has been embedded. It is therefore important to continue to revisit previous objectives at home as well as focus on any new objectives that have been given. When you are sent home your child’s weekly target you may feel it is below the level you would expect – this could be because their speed and accuracy of response is below the required level which will allow them to make maximum progress with numeracy (Traffic Lights - recall 10 facts in 45 secs, Passport – recall 10 facts in 30 secs). Practice of mental skills at home and school will help your child to succeed and enjoy the subject.

You can continue to support the Passport/Traffic light initiative by:
• Reviewing already passed objectives over holidays, particularly the summer break. Children will be re-tested on previously passed objectives in September. If not embedded they will review these BEFORE moving on.
• Keeping a copy of the passport objectives/examples (available on website) on display at home and regularly refer to it.
• Spending time practicing and revisiting calculation concepts, as outlined in the passport.
• Giving your child positive feedback and celebrating effort as well as attainment.