Year 5 Maths Homework

I had to share this with you... real life from this week. I got contacted by a local mum who had attended my year 5 & 6 course during the week asking for immediate help as world war three was erupting in her house over the year 5 maths homework. My eldest son, also in year 5 had just started doing his, so I looked at the question. I looked at it again and thought… mmm, that’s looks a bit hard and I’m not sure they’ve covered this yet. But anyway, Dexter and I worked it out together using logic and, with a few trial and errors on the way, we worked out the answer. I shared a photo of our workings out with the mum and decided to post the solution on the year 5 social media page to help other parents.

Needless to say there were a flurry of responses - ‘confused’, ‘far too difficult’, ‘that’s too hard - I’ll leave it for the teacher to explain’ and ‘I think it’s a typo’.

Two dads also chipped in with their solutions. Dad 1 insists that his way is obvious and to quote him “not rocket science surely”. And Dad 2’s solution, albeit brilliant, used a level of algebra that covered in KS3 curriculum in 2 or 3 years time!

I was really pleased to find out that Dexter successfully explained his methodology to his teacher and, although she did confirm that it was indeed a misprint, both Dexter and I got a house point as a reward for our work!!