KS1 Numeracy - Understanding Place Value

An accompaniment to the programme Teaching Place Value, this programme visits a parents' briefing where a revised system of maths teaching is introduced at Springfield School, Jersey.

Key Stage 1 children are overcoming conceptual problems by learning about tens and hundreds by using a logical language: twenty one becomes "two-ty-one", so children are saying some strange things at home! We hear parents' reactions and see their own understanding of place value develop so they can apply the same logic at home.

Richard Dunne, maths consultant, uses the movement of paper cups between two tables to reinforce the logic of addition and subtraction. We see how flashcards are used: on cards printed with the numeral 40, the zero is hidden behind a 6 to fix the concept of 46 being four 10s and a six. Finally, Richard shows parents how children will be introduced to addition of tens and units numbers as horizontal "maths stories" and how to develop this into "vertical" addition.