A few minutes of practice on several days can keep facts and methods accessible without turning home into another lesson. Practice should go over what school has taught, not introduce a new method.

Plan a small amount

Choose one connected set supplied or approved by school. Use revision cards, a few school questions, or the maths app or website school already uses, for five minutes on two or three days.

A useful routine is:

1. recall or explain the fact or method;

2. complete a small number of questions;

3. check immediately;

4. revisit only the errors;

5. stop while attention is still good.

Mix question types only after the method is accurate. Timing may be introduced cautiously when the young person is comfortable and should measure only their own improvement.

Watch for the wrong kind of practice

Stop and contact school if the young person is guessing, repeating the same misunderstanding or cannot explain the method. Repetitive drilling of misunderstood material is unlikely to help.

Notice whether the calculation becomes easier to use in homework, science, money or measurement. That matters more than a faster practice score.

A free option to look at

Corbettmaths 5-a-day gives five short questions for every day of the year, free, with answers for each month. There are five levels, from Numeracy up to Higher Plus. The questions mix topics, so some may not have been taught yet. Ask the maths teacher which level suits, use it once the method is accurate, and skip any question on a topic they have not covered.

Talamo has no commercial relationship with any of the organisations named here. We suggest them only because we think they could be useful to families.