Ards pupils rocking their times tables

 

By Annie Stewart

WEST Winds Primary School rocked last week to a number of maths hits.

Staff and pupils dressed up as rock stars on Thursday as part of the school’s Time Tables Rock Stars programme designed to get children excited about maths and learning.

The programme was part of Maths Week Ireland and included a number of activities including treasure hunts, designing their own music festivals, taking part in an annual competition of ‘Ireland Rocks’, and taking part in a ‘Beatles Drive’.

Christopher Turkington, P6 teacher and KS2 co-ordinator, said the Times Tables Rock Stars programme takes all the worry out of learning times tables.

“The programme has a proven track record of boosting children’s fluency and recall in multiplication and division,” he said.

“As a school, we have been using Times Tables Rock Stars across KS2 for the last two years, very kindly funded by our own PTA.

“We take part in an annual competition ‘Ireland Rocks’ that pits all of the registered schools across the island of Ireland against each other in a times tables battle. The competition lasts for three days and all pupils are allowed to play daily for a maximum of one hour.”

Mr Turkington said events like these ‘give children of all abilities the chance to take part in an event that promotes learning tables in a positive light’.

“Our pupil’s love playing the games online and competing with each other,” he said.

“The rock star element makes learning fun and dressing up just adds to that!

 “We have seen an increase in pupil’s recall speed, their ability to apply their table knowledge to their classwork and their confidence when doing so.”