Times Tables by heart?

Learning Times Table is still probably the best way to do mental arithmetic, which can be useful even in this day and age.

I agree with pen's remark. One can be crap at memorising times tables but still good at maths. Which is not to say having times tables at the 'front end of your brain', so to speak, isn't a useful skill. It is. But it's not maths and it doesn't necessarily encourage mathematical thinking which, after all, should be the point of teaching kids about numbers and how they work.

Good point Roseq

Who says they have to be chanted trisher ? Though to be fair to memorise something usually needs a fair bit of repetition.

Pen talk about 2+2=5

I am not sure if I am included in your generalisations rose but as i have said I do not think anyone has said children should not be taught x tables.
My objection is to use this one small area of learning to measure the whole worth of a school. I know from experience that once something is used in this way other important learning is pushed out of the way because so much hangs on one small aspect... even if it is an important aspect.

I have worked in and with schools for many years and see excellent work by kids and their teachers. This is NOT going to improve anything believe me!

No one has actually said they would ban times tables rosequartz only that focussing on chanting them and testing this is not the best way of teaching children maths for many reasons.

Is it only left-wingers who want to ban times tables

Or am I stirring it all up again

5 leftwing gransnetters versus 5 rabid rightwing gransnetters = a lot of hot air

I was always useless at 'sums' and hated maths with a vengeance, but knowing my x tables has always stood me in good stead and I use them automatically every single day of my life. I think it's a brilliant, if hardly a new idea (teaching yer Granny to suck eggs comes to mind) to get all children to learn them by rote.

That's my point about calculators Elegran - you can hand someone a calculator to solve a problem but often they wouldn't know what numbers to feed in and which buttons to push!!

And if you know your tables and have a good grounding in mental arithmetic you could have a good idea if you have pressed a wrong button and got an answer which is way out!

5) Finish up the remaining chocolates. You have now eaten a whole box of chocolates and learnt a bit of algebra

I feel a bit sick now and DH is annoyed because I ate his favourites .....

At DD's junior school various bits of the times tables were put on large sheets of paper randomly around the walls and they were supposed to absorb it, as in osmosis .....

As with all learning regardless of whether it is tables, spelling or something else; the best results are achieved through multi sensory methods.
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Well it just proves that someone did rest your post after all Elegran

I can do my tables up to 5 times , at that stage I was in hospital for three weeks with Scarlet Fever , when I got back to school, several weeks later , every one was up t 12 time . No allowance was made for my not being at school and I got slapped for mistakes , I never learnt past the 5times tables and really find it a handicap ........... mind you I learnt spellings by rote and can't spell either !! Both lackings are a real pain when watching Countdown

No, Anya it was an unforced error. I should have caught it, as I lost the whole post at one point for some unfathomable reason, and had to start again.

When I studied later in life I soon realised I was perfectly capable of getting to grips with Mathematics. However, as a child I spent many a Maths lesson in a state of terror hoping against hope I would not make a fool of myself with my times tables - blind recall was never my strong point and I have since realised I was mildly dyslexic so being asked to read a question aloud was also hugely challenging for me. The result of all this fear and pressure to perform within the strict and old fashioned parameters of the 50s and 60s turned me into a nervous child with little confidence in my abilities.
Children learn in many different ways, what works for one will be a huge challenge for others and vice versa.

Oops Elegran x'd posts! I thought that was the point you were trying to make; a deliberate mistake

AND the little buggers darlings are having to learn them already. Why would anyone think it's new?

Perhaps the answer is 0 Elegran.

That's my point about calculators Elegran - you can hand someone a calculator to solve a problem but often they wouldn't know what numbers to feed in and which buttons to push!!

It won't hurt the little buggers darlings. I can still remember some of mine.

Just seen a typo in the exercise - 6 X 4 -24 should of course have been 6 X 4 = 24 As no-one noticed, I assume that no-one has been trying it.

Shouldn't think this will cut into other curriculum areas at all, as it's on the curriculum already - I thought people knew that - it's just the testing in Y6 that's new. As it's a computer based test I can't see it taking that long anyway.

My objection to the new test is that it's perfectly easy to be teacher assessed, which is the current system anyway.

That maths with the aid of chocs is right up my street!

Yes, all that repetition of the same kind of sum is fine for getting practice, but knowing what sum is needed is more difficult. We also used to do stacks and stacks of "problems" which had first to be assessed to work out what to do, before you got down to doing it. Real life contains more problems than repetitions, unless you work with a narrow range of calculations which are always the same.

There seem to be many adults who have no idea of what numbers mean. I was another one who learnt tables by rote, but the other day I needed to work out how much per tonne for gas when 1.446 T. cost 2460€.
I had to ring son no. 2 and ask him - he's a maths teacher. He worked it out at once. I knew it was some kind of division, but what to divide by what?
So I agree with Trisher, especially as they all probably have a calculator on their Iphones.

You could do it with indigestion tablets trisher (That isn't envy, its biliousness)