Maths is really a misnomer as far as primary school children are concerned. When I was at junior school it was called arithmetic, maths came later at senior school. Arithmetic is really what most of us will use in every day life. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and percentages are arithmetic. Times tables are an integral part of understanding the basics. The basics in arithmetic are what employers say are lacking from school leavers these days.
My childrens suffered from being taught arithmetic very badly. When it became apparent that they would need tutoring to get through their GCSE maths, I consulted their maths teacher at their senior school for advice on private tutoring. During our discussion I told the maths teacher that in my opinion, the reason why children needed tutoring was that there was very little consolidation when teaching basics at primary. For example, a few days on say fractions then they moved on to another topic, which worked well for the most able pupils, but not for those less able, by the time they came back to fractions they had forgotten it. When I was at junior school we would do fractions or whatever for what seemed like weeks on end, until it eventually went in. That teacher agreed with me and also pointed out that a large percentage of pupils had private maths tuition even though our school was a high achieving comprehensive. My kids did get a pass with the help of the tutor but still think they, like many others, suffer from not having been taught the basics properly, such as learning by rote, which might be boring in some instances, but I think many us are of the opinion that doing so has served us well in life.