99 Club

At Ashill we believe that learning your times tables is a vital key to unlocking a range of concepts in Maths – not just a whole range of multiplication and division problems, but also doubling, halving, factors, fractions, prime numbers, squares, and square roots of numbers…even the area and volume of shapes! Being able to fluently recall all the times tables from 1x up to 12x is a huge advantage in school and makes Maths so much easier!

The 99 club was introduced to help with the rapid recall of the times tables and has been so successful in moving many children on that we are constantly looking for ways to adapt it to improve the children’s understanding in this area. However, we also need to check that the depth of knowledge is there alongside learning by rote.

We found that times tables wise, little was being gained beyond the 99 club, and the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum sheets were created as a ‘what next’ for those children who achieve the 99 club quickly. As a result, we have decided to change the way the children recall key mathematical concepts and their times tables knowledge and are now introducing ‘Mental Maths Sheets’ which are specifically targeted to the child’s year group.

The 11-99 club sheets are also being tweaked so that there are 3 different orders for the questions. This is to lessen the impact of learning the answers in order from memory, rather than having that concrete knowledge of the calculation there at their fingertips.

Anyone who is on the 99 club and completes this twice in a row successfully, will then move on to the mental Maths sheets which challenges them in a new, more relevant way. There are 10 sheets per year group and once all have been completed from their relevant year group, they will be challenged with the year group above’s.

We will also be introducing certificates to celebrate the achievements of the children as they pass each stage of the club. These will be handed out in celebration assemblies every Friday.