Maths in Minutes and Rapid Arithmetic: Your Questions Answered

We hope by now you have heard about a few of our new maths resources – Maths in Minutes and Rapid Arithmetic – maybe you’ve even had opportunity to try our summer packs. Both are brand new resources which require no prep and give your children an opportunity to have short-burst maths practice. Keep an eye on our website as over the next few weeks we will be uploading our new maths resources to give your class more fluency practice.

To give you some more info about them (always helps to know why they exist and the key bits you need to know when you use them), we asked Claire some questions, (a different Claire from the original Claire who founded Classroom Secrets – it’s like our favourite name at Classroom Secrets). Anyway, maths Claire, who developed these resources is our maths content specialist.

Us: Why did you develop Rapid Arithmetic resources?

Claire: We are always talking and listening to teachers and have heard time and time again that there isn't enough time to squeeze enough fluency practice into your maths lessons. Each pack has 3 sessions worth of ready-made resources that can be used at any point in the day for a short fluency practice… not just in your maths lessons.

Us: How do you envisage Rapid Arithmetic being used?

Claire: We know that budgets are super tight, so these resources are designed to be put on the screen and for children to complete on individual whiteboards or in their maths books. There are 3 sets of questions – Set A, B and C. Each set builds on the previous set and becomes progressively more challenging. You can use them in flexible ways. We just LOVE flexibility. You could ask all children to complete the same set, ask them to choose the most appropriate set for themselves or even challenge them to complete all three! As a teacher, I would probably pop it on the screen as children come in first thing.

Us: What skills/objectives does Rapid Arithmetic cover?

Claire: As the name suggests, the questions covered are purely calculations, fractions and place value. The questions will cover areas that have already been taught, but not areas that haven’t yet been taught. You’ll find that most schemes following the National Curriculum largely follow a similar order, so it doesn’t really matter if you follow a set scheme. In the Autumn term the questions will recap the previous year's learning. The number of questions for each year group increases as they mature to ensure the children are not overloaded with information before they are ready.

Us: Can we use Rapid Arithmetic across the whole school?

Claire: Absolutely! Each year group has been created in the same way. However, we have ensured that the number of questions increases as the children become more experienced. Year 1 children will have 3 questions in each set, year 2 will have 5 questions and years 3 – 6 will have 7 questions.

Us: How would you use a Maths in Minutes resource?

Claire: This resource doesn’t require any preparation so I would just have it available to put on the whiteboard whenever there are a few spare minutes. Possibly first thing in the morning or after lunch when you need that extra moment of quiet. The idea is that the children can attempt all the questions at their own pace.

Us: How are these resources different to the new Rapid Arithmetic resource line?

Claire: Excellent question! Our Rapid Arithmetic focuses on calculations, fractions and place value whereas Maths in Minutes has questions from a range of areas of the maths curriculum. Here’s what they cover:

Y1: 3 questions – number, measure and geometry.

Y2: 4 questions – 2 number, measure and geometry.

Y3–6: 5 questions – 2 number, measure, geometry, statistics.

In Y6, there may also be some time questions included using objectives from Y4 and Y5. In the Spring term, the number of questions increases 7 in order to include algebra and ratio and proportion.

As with Rapid Arithmetic, we’ll only cover what the children have already been taught at that point in the school year.

It’s probably obvious but we’ll say it anyway: you can use this across the whole school – not just for your class.

Us: Can I use Maths in Minutes resources alongside Rapid Arithmetic resources?

Claire: Absolutely! Every half term will have 6 sets of Maths in Minutes and 6 sets of Rapid Arithmetic sets. You can simply mix and match depending on what your children need most. You could also use the questions from either resource line for an intervention group rather than the whole class.