Top tips for tackling Maths anxiety

If you find maths a challenging subject, the anxiety surrounding it can impact learning and engagement. To give you some extra home learning help, we have some top tips from former Headteacher and PL Primary Stars Maths expert Sue Skyrme. Help your children find maths a little less scary:

• Be positive!
  Don’t say things like “I can’t do maths” or “I hated maths at school” - your child may start to think the same.
• Praise your child for effort rather than ability.
  Build their confidence and enjoyment by encouraging them to ‘keep trying’ and build their perseverance. Say things like ‘We can’t do it…yet’. Talk about things you have found hard but by working hard, you succeeded.
• If you don’t know something, that’s ok!
  Making mistakes is how we all learn. Try and work together to solve a problem – it doesn’t matter how you do it, it is the talking and exploring that is important.
• Share the maths around us in everyday life.
  Maths is not simply a school subject, we use it every day. You can do activities together like cooking, calculating time, finding patterns, understanding costs of items and so much more. Talk about simple problems such as “We have 3 red apples and 3 green apples, how many do we have altogether?” Discuss how maths helps us do our jobs and solve bigger problems.
• Play games with your children
  Many well-known board games, cards and dominoes all use numbers and counting. Say rhymes or sing songs about counting and numbers. Do number puzzles – ‘Stick with Maths’ places number puzzles in a real-life football context to engage children. Try a little maths, but often. However, above all, have fun!

Premier League Primary Stars has plenty of free resources available to support your child and develop their maths skills. Why not try some of these fun activities together? 

1. Stick with Maths - Use data from football stickers to figure out the maths puzzles and develop problem-solving skills.

2. Solve, Shoot, Score - A game using quick-fire maths or spelling questions to help you score a goal.

3. Position and Direction - Use the football pitch as an example to explain position and direction.

Don’t forget to check out the Premier League Primary Stars Home Learning page for more fantastic free activities.