Year 5 Maths articles

We explain how primary-school children are taught to recognise vertical lines in shapes, and what you can to to support your child's understanding at home.

We explain what perpendicular means and how children are taught angles throughout KS1 and KS2.

We explain what mass means, how mass is usually measured and how children are taught to convert from one unit of mass to another.

We explain what teachers mean when they talk about finding 'the difference between' and give examples of how children are taught to work out the answers to subtraction problems.

We explain what descending order means and give examples of how the concept might relate to numbers, decimals, fractions or amounts of money.

We explain what the denominator of a fraction is and give examples of how the concept is taught in primary-school maths, as well as explaining fractions equivalence and the relationship between the numerator and denominator.

We explain what the lowest common denominator is and how to find it and use it to compare different fractions, as well as giving examples of how the concept might be taught to your primary-school child.

We explain what the highest common factor is and give examples of how the concept might be taught to your primary school child.

We explain what decimals are and how the concept is explained to primary-school children, as well as how they are taught to relate decimals to money and measurement, the equivalence between fractions and decimals, partitioning, rounding and ordering decimals and adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals.

We explain what a number sentence is and how primary-school children are taught to write number sentences (or fill in gaps in number sentences) in KS1 and KS2.

We explain what an integer is and how to explain the concept to your child, as well as offering some puzzles involving the term 'integer'.

In maths the product of two numbers is the result you get when you multiply them. We explain how children are taught multiplication vocabulary in KS2 and what kind of problems they might be asked to solve,

Heard your child talk about their LO, or their WALT? Teachers use learning objectives to help children understand what is expected of them in the classroom. Find out what a learning objective (or WALT) is and how learning objectives are used in primary school.

Find out what a talk partner is and why having a talk partner will benefit your child's learning in the classroom.

Find out what interactive whiteboards are and how they enhance learning in the classroom.

Maths activities could give your child’s learning a boost in many ways, and help them engage with numbers (and enjoy it!) from a young age. Lucy Dimbylow offers 12 reasons to give number puzzles a go today.

Can you multiply using the grid method, or draw a multiplication calculation as arrays? Find out more about multiplication and how it’s taught in schools today with our teachers' tips, tricks and methods, explained for primary-school parents.

From halves in quarters in KS1 to equivalent fractions in KS2, primary teacher Phoebe Doyle offers some insiders’ tips to help you help your child at home, plus details of fraction walls, hundred charts and other useful maths resources.

Primary school teacher Phoebe Doyle has some tips and tricks to help your child with division work at home, offering an explanation of strategies using in school today as well as some useful practical exercises to try.