Best Practice

Maths: Recall of addition/subtraction facts at key stage 1

Curriculum Literacy & English Quality First Teaching Lesson planning Pedagogy Ofsted
A year ago, Ofsted’s mathematics subject review warned that the poor recall of addition and subtraction facts at key stage 1 could be holding back learners. Ben Harding offers an eight-point self-evaluation checklist for teachers
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In July last year, Ofsted published its report into maths teaching – Coordinating mathematical success (2023). More than a year on and it is perhaps time for schools to revisit the key recommendations, self-evaluating the impact of their response.

There were some vital threads for primary schools to follow in the report. One of the main themes for school leaders to consider was the focus given to “declarative knowledge”.

At primary level “declarative knowledge” mainly refers to the instant recall of number facts. While Ofsted offered some praise for the raised profile of times tables facts, the report shone a spotlight on the instant recall of addition/subtraction facts at key stage 1, and the role that reception year plays in laying the foundations for such recall.

Paragraph 9 of the report states: “Pupils in key stage 1 were often expected to develop flexibility and ‘deep understanding’ when thinking about number. However, there appeared to be less emphasis on learning addition and subtraction tables (number bonds) by heart. This is potentially problematic, as pupils need to be able to recall this type of knowledge quickly in order to access more complex mathematics in key stage 2.”

The report goes on (in paragraph 13) to illustrate how a young child’s inability to easily recall addition facts connects to low standards in year 6.

This means that even for schools with pleasing SATs results, reviewing the current position with key stage 1 addition/subtraction fact recall could lead to significant enhancements in the overall cohesion and smoothness of mathematics provision.

I have worked with thousands of teachers on their teaching of number-fluency over many years and I agree that it is the inability to recall addition facts at age 7 that presents as the most common and stubborn issue.

Ironically, the addition fact recall learning journey is arguably the most important academic duty for primary educators (matched in importance only by phonics) and yet, typically, it is the learning journey that schools seem to have the least success and confidence with.

So, for schools wishing to self-evaluate and follow this thread of the Ofsted report, here is an eight-point checklist.

 

1, Have we established idea of recall?

This first rule is agreeing what we mean by declarative knowledge and communicating the idea to the young child.

Children start off on their number fact learning journey away from numbers. If the child can respond to a picture of a dog, a ball, etc without needing to stop and think/process, we not only have a recall foundation to connect further information to, but we can speak about the concept of recall, inviting them to notice what happened – i.e. the sensation of “no thinking time”.

It is only when the child understands the idea of recall that we can accelerate the acquisition of new facts into memory.

 

2, Have we clarified the recall content?

Clarify, across the school, which isolated pieces of recall we are going to secure with every child. For me, this boils down to 36 essential pieces of information – namely all one-digit plus one-digit facts – ranging from 2+2 to 9+9 (see table below).

Notice that “plus one facts” (such as 6+1) can be taught as an extension to knowing the next number as we verbally count.

We also don’t need to include the commutative version of each fact. The commutative law is taught as a single isolated concept outside of this learning and can then be applied to each of the 36 facts. For example, that being able to recall 5+7=12, means pupils also have the recall of 7+5=12.

 

 

3, Have we broken the content into small steps?

Now we know what we are dealing with, we can start to systemise the learning journey. This involves breaking down the entire addition fact recall learning journey into smaller cognitively manageable steps.

 

4, Have we mapped progression?

Before we go further into generating the recall, it is essential to map a number of smaller steps into an age-related expected journey.

The overarching timescales used should lead children to finish the journey half-way through the school year in which they turn seven, while leaving sufficient time between each step to shift the recall from the child’s short-term memory into the long-term.

At a school leadership level, the information this exercise of “mapping against time” produces is vital to success. Only once we have agreed when each small step of recall will be secured in the child’s mind do we start to gain control of the learning journey.

To put it another way, when schools can’t see, or don’t regularly look at, the proportion of children on-track, control of this crucial journey is lost.

 

5, Have we made all new recall ‘doable’?

6, Have we systemised ‘little and often’ practice?

Since each one of our small steps will involve, typically, three or four new facts for children to recall, when it comes to teaching each step we break-down expectations further by introducing one new fact at a time.

It is always useful to start with the child recalling factual content already embedded in their long-term memory. That means we can start at the previous small step and from there introduce a single fact from the new small step, integrating it into the secure recall from the known facts with a flashcard learning approach.

This is one of the curriculum areas where edtech can prove invaluable to providing the personalised input and engagement necessary for success.

 

7, Have we systemised watching recall?

However, one area where edtech cannot help us is in observing pupils’ recall in real-time. We must be constantly asking ourselves: “Is my number-fact recall teaching generating recall for all children in line with our age and time-related expectations?”

The only way to be certain of this is to observe each child give that immediate response. The recall we require must be observable, repeatedly accurate, and demonstrated over a wide timescale. So, we need a system for watching recall with any edtech system used alongside this and not instead of it.

 

8, Have we integrated recall into broader teaching sequences?

Up to this point we have been thinking of hitting our recall goals through what we could call a “flashcard learning” approach – so, we offer up “6+7” (verbally or visually) and the child immediately responds (verbally or in written form) with “13”.

Now we peel this back, clarifying that while the flashcard learning moment is important, it is part of a sequence of teaching points that build recall.

Put simply, we need to build up to the flashcard (e.g. counting out the number relationships) and then strengthen recall after the flashcard (e.g. applying addition facts into the context of adding tens yet without counting).

 

Final thoughts

Number-fluency isn’t something we wait to see if children pick up – it is something we give to children through a structured approach with a strong teaching process.

At the heart of this success is the school successfully implementing a system for guaranteeing the recall of addition facts at key stage 1.

Indeed, as Ofsted suggested, this should be the first thing a school looks to “get right” in their overall mathematics provision.

 

Further information & resources