Here at Carville we have decided to introduce a system called Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) throughout school.  This aims to develop your child’s fluency and mental maths skills and is a way of helping your child/ren to learn by heart, key facts and information which they need to have instant recall of.

 

An important part of maths development has always been learning certain numeracy facts by repetition such as practising times tables. KIRF’s are therefore particularly useful when calculating; adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing.

 

Each half term your child/ren will be given KIRFs to practise and learn at home as well as in school. These will be sent home on A4 sheets and include practical ideas for you to be able to help your child/ren in grasping the key facts.  It is important that they learn these thoroughly and can recall specific facts instantly.  This will help your child/ren build their knowledge year on year. In some cases, children will be given a KIRF from a previous half term to support their learning.

 

The KIRFs will be labelled as follows:

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Practising KIRFs as maths homework will consist of short, snappy, practical activities, ideally to be done daily. They are not designed to be a time-consuming task and can be practiced anywhere – in the car, walking to school etc. Regular practice that is little and often helps retain these facts and keep their skills sharp. Throughout each half term, the KIRFs will also be practiced in school and your child’s teacher will assess whether they have been retained.

 

We strongly encourage you to engage with your children in the learning of their KIRFs. Over their time at primary school, we believe that, if the KIRFs are developed fully, children will be more confident with number work, understand relevance, and be able to access the curriculum much more easily. They will be able to apply what they have learned to a wide range of problems that confront us regularly. Children will leave Carville Primary School with a much stronger foundation of mathematical understanding.