Family Learning 
@ 
Linlithgow Primary School

Multiplication & Division
Family Learning 
Booklet

Contents
Page
Aims								 3
Helping your child					 4
Written methods					 6
Multiplication						 7 
Division  							10
National Numeracy Strategy			14
Key Skills Progression					15

3
Aims
The aim of this booklet is to give you information about the different methods that we use to help support your child when they are completing calculations.

We know that the maths work your child is doing may look different to the ‘sums’ you remember. This is because children are encouraged to work mentally and use jottings to support thinking. In this way, children gain an understanding of number, rather than the method.

Children are taught a range of mental strategies, for example, counting on or back, doubling and halving and rounding and adjusting. These are often supported by the use of informal jottings. Children are also taught more formal written methods of calculation. This usually occurs once children are able to add and subtract numbers confidently using mental strategies. As the children become more sophisticated in their thinking and are able to deal with more abstract ways of working, methods become more abstract.

Within this booklet, we have included the main strategies we teach and the key skills we develop, from concrete to pictorial and then to abstract learning using objects, pictures, jottings, number lines and to more formal written methods.

Whilst the majority of children will follow the methods outlined here, we recognise that all children are different. For some children, it may not be appropriate to teach them all the methods. For others, it will be appropriate to extend their repertoire of strategies.

Even when children have been taught formal compact methods, discussing the efficiency and suitability of different strategies remains an important part of learning. Children need to be able to choose the best strategy for each calculation, depending on the
numbers involved.

HELPING YOUR CHILD
There are many ways you can help your child with their maths. Practising number facts, which are key to developing children’s mathematical confidence and proficiency, is just one way. Another excellent way is to involve them in everyday maths, which you can adapt to meet the age and abilities of your child.

If your child has maths homework and you’re not sure how to help, ask them to explain their thinking to you and to teach you the methods that they have been learning at school. If you are still unsure as to how to work out a calculation, please don’t hesitate to come in to school and we’ll be happy to show you.

Be positive about maths, even when you are not sure. Help your child to see errors as a learning opportunity and remember when we are not challenged we are not learning. These changes will help your child to develop a GROWTH MINDSET.

To see multiplication and division strategies demonstrated, with detailed explanation log on to

www.khanacademy.org

4

When faced with a calculation problem,
encourage your child to ask themselves…
v
Can I do this in my head?
Could I do this in my head using drawings or
jottings to help me?
Do I need to use a written method?
Should I use a calculator?

v
v
v
Also help your child to estimate and then check the
answer. Encourage them to ask…
v
Is the answer sensible?
5

  WRITTEN METHODS
It is important that children have a strong sense of number and mental calculation strategies before they progress onto formal calculation methods. Useful questions to think about are:
•	Do they know double and half facts to 20?
•	Do they know the 2,3,4,5 and 10 times tables; division as well as
•	multiplication facts? 
•	Do they know the result of multiplying a number by 1 or 0?
•	Do they understand what happens to digits when a number is
•	multiplied by 10 and 100 and why 0 is used as a place holder?
•	Do they understand what happens when a number is divided by
•	10 and 100?
•	Can they double and halve two digit numbers mentally?
•	Can they multiply 2 and 3-digit numbers by 10 and 100?
•	Can they use multiplication facts they know to derive other
•	multiplication facts and division facts that they do not know?

6

Multiplication & Division

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https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Pages/num1nnpf.aspx