Do you know your times tables?

It's the start of the school year and, also, my niece (aged 4) has just started school. The chat with my brother about starting to learn phonics at home prompted me to say, jokingly, "you'll have to brush up on your times tables". When he said he couldn't remember much of his times tables I was astonished but, then, he works in English whilst I spend my days doing Maths and science. And there's the thing, when you don't use them, recalling them can be difficult; like it or not, it's all about repetition.

I teach all ages and stages of Maths, and increasingly, when I ask, "Do you know your times tables?" the answer is either "mostly" or "no". And they are the bed rock of school-level Maths. Having set students to learning their times tables I notice a rapid improvement in their ability to access their Maths, and therefore in their confidence to do Maths. It's one of what I term the "big wins" - a small amount of effort has a universally positive effect on so many parts of their mathematical learnings.

In Year 1, children begin to count in 2s, 5s, and 10s. By Year 4 they are expected to be fluent in their times tables and many undergo the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC), a statutory assessment for all state-funded primary schools which tests children's ability to multiply up to 12 x 12. The MTC can identify students who need additional support early in their school careers because the government recognises the importance of times tables in more complicated Maths success; countries where achievement is high, such as Shanghai and Singapore, show exceptional fluency of children in their times tables. At GSCE, there is at least one non-calculator paper students must sit. This is mostly inaccessible without a good grasp of times tables. And still, it's not uncommon for Secondary school children to find their times tables tricky. Which makes their Maths, in general, tricky. And tricky subjects can quickly become less enjoyable subjects - we all prefer to do the things we're good at.

So where do you start in supporting your child's learning? There are a multitude of apps available now, and other on-line resources. If you type "times tables" into your search engine, the possibilites are nearly endless. There are times tables playing cards, rulers, stickers... Some students like patterns and, particularly for neurodivergent children, colourful times tables poppers are nearly always popular. But, repetition is everything (apologies for repeating it!) - practice makes perfect. So, get started! Play times tables games in the car or whilst walking to school. Bank 5 minutes a day - in the long run it goes a long way.