Remember i used to have little checklists for how my children were doing against NC guidelines? I’ve not done them for ages. Actually, the seem to have got harder to find. I wonder why?

Anyway, curiosity made me go looking tonight to see how things are going, in that grand scheme of things. I think it was the sight of Tony and his “education, education, education” speech. Apparently Fran should be achieving level 3 in maths and moving on to lvel 4. So lets see…

Level 3

Pupils show understanding of place value in numbers up to 1000 and use this to make approximations. DUH
They begin to use decimal notation and to recognise negative numbers, in contexts such as money and temperature. Yep.
Pupils use mental recall of addition and subtraction facts to 20 in solving problems involving larger numbers. ????? Up to 20??? Is that really all?
They add and subtract numbers with two digits mentally and numbers with three digits using written methods. They use mental recall of the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 multiplication tables and derive the associated division facts. Yep, so long as she hasn’t sent her brain to the moon for the day.
They solve wholenumber problems involving multiplication or division, including those that give rise to remainders.YEP

They use simple fractions that are several parts of a whole and recognise when two simple fractions are equivalent. Easy peasy, lemon squeesy.

Level 4

Pupils use their understanding of place value to multiply and divide whole numbers by 10 or 100. YEP

In solving number problems, pupils use a range of mental methods of computation with the four operations, including mental recall of multiplication facts up to 10 10 and quick derivation of corresponding division facts. I would imagine so, agian, depending on lunar landings.
They use efficient written methods of addition and subtraction and of short multiplication and division. YEP

They add and subtract decimals to two places and order decimals to three places. Not really tried that, but she understands the principle.
In solving problems with or without a calculator, pupils check the reasonableness of their results by reference to their knowledge of the context or to the size of the numbers.Yep. At least, after a short interval of eye rolling.
They recognise approximate proportions of a whole and use simple fractions and percentages to describe these. Yes, likes those.
Pupils recognise and describe number patterns, and relationships including multiple, factor and square. They begin to use simple formulae expressed in words. Well, obviously to number patterns, not really tried the rest of it. She understands area though, so squaring comes in there.
Pupils use and interpret coordinates in the first quadrant. She enjoys these and we’ve had a good bit of fun with x,y + and -.

Well, that doesn’t strike me as having much to worry us then. She’s be hard pushed to make a school teach i ever had happy with the way she writes it all out, but that is all familiar to her. Not bad really

I guess that means Maddy ought to be somewhere in the Level 3, moving on to level 3 phase then… hmm….

Level 2

Pupils count sets of objects reliably, and use mental recall of addition and subtraction facts to 10. They begin to understand the place value of each digit in a number and use this to order numbers up to 100. They choose the appropriate operation when solving addition and subtraction problems. They use the knowledge that subtraction is the inverse of addition. They use mental calculation strategies to solve number problems involving money and measures. They recognise sequences of numbers, including odd and even numbers.

Hm. I’m not even going to dignify that with a response really. If Maddy lived with Alison, i daresay she’d have maths spilling out of her ears; as she doesn’t, i’ve avoided labouring it with her up tillnow as i knwo she is going to love maths and i didn’t want to spoil it by making it stressful in any other way. This last week or 2 though, she’s been doing a workbook i got her (6-7) and sailing through it. It is ever so easy for her, but the confidence she is showing is great. Looking forward to doing more of it with her now too; she loves playing with hands on maths and we’ve done lots of maths rods and working out patterns over the last week or two.

Wonder what the literacy one are like then? Oh. All very wishy-washy… mind you, there is just LOADS of writing here these days; Amelie and Maddy done endless amounts and while Fran is still reluctant to put pen to paper, she seems to email my mum, dad and sister in perfectly good english, from the odd bits i get to read before they disappear. So that must be okay.

Hurrah. Home ed works