NRICH Maths Club

nrich.maths.org/

KS2 (Years 3 - 6)

Mathematics

This product is published by University of Cambridge (Tel: 01223 336282)

This is a very comprehensive site aimed at the more able pupils with activities, investigations and problems designed to stretch them. Once you have discovered how easy it is to navigate around, you will discover the multitude of activities there are on the site. With careful planning, some of the activities aimed at younger children could be adapted for use by older children.

The website supports the Maths Curriculum. It is particularly useful to teachers aiming to stretch brighter pupils. Its strong features are its puzzles and investigations and ease of use. It is best used as a resource for teachers to print off material. Where pupils have access to the Internet, use of the online strategic games allows pupils to play against the computer. Teachers do not need to have an in depth mathematical, or ICT knowledge to use this site. If they are unsure about the answers to the current problems, they can access ones from previous months, as the solutions are available.

This is a very good site, spoilt somewhat by a cluttered home page. Once the navigation is sorted out, there is a lot of excellent content. This is supported by good teachers' notes, cross-referencing with similar activities and a good search facility.

Before giving out work to the pupils, the user needs to check if and when solutions are going to be published on the website. If they are being published and the pupils have the web address, enough time needs to be allowed for pupils to complete their work before the solutions are published. If they are emailing their work, a note of the date by which solutions need to be in, as it is very easy to let the date pass! Some problems are shape based, so either a scanner needs to be used, or pupils need to have access to software, which allows them to draw and manipulate shapes.