Hovingham CE (VC) Primary School
and
St Hilda's CE (VC) Primary School
Federation
Head Teacher Mr J Pynn MA NPQH
11th September 2015
Dear Parents/Carers,
Many of you are now familiar with the mental maths target system that we use in school
but for those who aren’t or who would like a reminder, this letter explains how it works.
The system is known as SMIRFs (Space Mission Instant Recall Facts).
Rationale
Instant recall (being able to recall the fact within 3 seconds) is one important part of
learning mathematics. It gives children a bank of knowledge from which they can draw to
help them when working with maths in a range of situations:
Research shows that learning key facts ‘by heart’ enables children to concentrate on the
calculation which helps them to develop calculation strategies. Using and applying
strategies to work out answers helps children to acquire and so remember more facts.
Many children who are not able to recall key facts often treat each calculation as a new
one and have to return to first principles to work out the answer again. Once they have a
secure knowledge of some key facts, and by selecting problems carefully, you can help
children to appreciate that from the answer to one problem, other answers can be
generated.
Teaching Children to Calculate Mentally, Department for Education, 2010
Overview of new system
There is an 11 stage system of instant recall with between 6 and 9 targets within each
stage. The system is about a rigorous and systematic approach to making sure that ALL
children have good instant recall. The stages are not linked to year groups as the
progression is about building each child’s instant recall systematically.
The stages are as follows:
1.
Astronaut selection
2.
Launch pad
3.
Mercury
4.
Venus
5.
Earth
Hovingham CE (VC)
Primary School,
Main Street, Hovingham,
York, YO62 4LF
Tel/Fax: 01653 628358
St Hilda’s CE (VC)
Primary School
Station Road, Ampleforth,
York, YO62 4DG
Tel: 01439 788357
[email protected]
www.hovinghamprimary.org.uk
[email protected]
www.st-hildasampleforth.org.uk
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
The Milky Way
Each child will start on the system at an appropriate stage. They have their own record
and work through the system at their own pace. They have a range of targets to be
working on at any one time but do not move onto the next stage until they have
completed all of the targets within each stage.
We will be working on the children’s targets as part of normal maths lessons in school but
need your support at home to practise as often as possible. If you feel that your child is
secure with a target, then please could you initial and date it?
Look out for your child’s log book over the next few days!
As always, if you have any questions then please come in and talk to us.
Yours faithfully,
Andrew Gee
Hovingham CE (VC)
Primary School,
Main Street, Hovingham,
York, YO62 4LF
Tel/Fax: 01653 628358
St Hilda’s CE (VC)
Primary School
Station Road, Ampleforth,
York, YO62 4DG
Tel: 01439 788357
[email protected]
www.hovinghamprimary.org.uk
[email protected]
www.st-hildasampleforth.org.uk