Useful Parent Information
At WJS we take every opportunity to make maths learning fun and about the real world.
We run events within school and take part in inter school activities run by the Coastal Alliance - some examples are given below.
Making Maths Fun!
Throughout the course of the children's time at WJS, they will have the amazing opportunity to attend special maths events held at a variety of different venues, as part of the Coastal Alliance. An example of such an event saw six lucky children, whose names were drawn out of a hat, spent the morning learning about how Maths is used in the real world and how visiting speakers use maths every day in their jobs- such as chefs, engineers, and Wildwood animal keepers!
A special Year 6 More Able and Talented Event:
To further inspire our more able and talented mathematicians, the local schools organise a Spring Term event at the Christian Centre in Seasalter where the children are grouped according to their new secondary schools (so as to further support transition) and they have the opportunity to think mathematically for the day!
There is a carousel of challenging problem-solving and reasoning for the children to solve with the end result to collect as many points as possible. The activities cover areas such as algebra, volume, geometry and much more. Not only do the children have fun, talking, reasoning and justifying but making new friends too!
Times- Table Bee!
The Whitstable School hold their biannual times table competition for 2 children from each year group to go head-to-head against all the local schools in Whitstable and Herne Bay. So let's get learning those timetables, so we can leave triumphant winners!
Different types of questions
We really value the importance of talk for learning at Whitstable Junior School as a method of developing our children's fluency and understanding of maths. Just as in Literacy, if a child can explain and talk about their ideas they have a better understanding of what they are achieving, and the same applies in maths. We really encourage our children to talk about their learning - justifying and reasoning their ideas throughout the lesson and in their books.
Included below is a list of the types of questions that you might like to ask your child to help them talk about their learning and in doing so further embed their conceptual understanding.
NCETM Maths Dictionary:
Also attached below is a mathematical dictionary to support parents and carers should you come across a mathematical word that is new to you or that you just haven't quite used for a while!