Primary · Mathematics
The year the problem sums get serious
P4 introduces the multi-step problem sums that upper primary is built on. Getting the method habits right here saves a great deal of difficulty later.
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Format
Live online via Zoom
Lessons
Weekly 1.5-hour lessons
Class size
Maximum 6 students
Taught in
English
Fees for this class are set out on our schedule and fees page. Every class is capped at six students.
Does this sound familiar?
Signs your child may need this class
- Can do single-step questions but stalls on multi-step ones
- Knows the operation but not which one the question wants
- Gets the right method and the wrong answer through slips
- Struggles to show working in a way that earns method marks
Why P4 is the pivot
Up to P3, most questions ask a pupil to do one thing. From P4 they ask for two or three, in an order the pupil has to work out. That is a genuinely different demand, and it is where confident younger pupils sometimes start to struggle.
How we teach it
Problems are grouped by the method that solves them rather than by chapter, so pupils learn to recognise a question type on sight. Working is marked for method as well as answer, because that is how the paper is marked.
What the class covers
- Whole numbers to 100,000 and the four operations
- Factors and multiples
- Fractions — equivalent, comparing, adding and subtracting
- Decimals and their operations
- Angles, squares, rectangles and symmetry
- Area and perimeter, tables and line graphs
What's included
- Weekly live lesson with worked problem sums
- Marked working with comments on method, not just answers
- Method summaries to keep for revision
- Make-up options if a lesson is missed
Questions parents ask
My child is good at computation but poor at word problems. Is that normal?
Very. They are different skills. Computation is procedure; a word problem asks the pupil to choose the procedure first, and that choice is what we teach.
Do you use the model method?
Where it is the clearest route, yes. We do not insist on it when a pupil has a method that works and can show it properly — the mark scheme rewards correct, visible reasoning.
Will this prepare my child for P5?
That is the point of the year. P5 assumes fluency with fractions, decimals and multi-step reasoning, and pupils who arrive without it spend the year catching up.
More general questions are answered on our FAQ page, and our reasoning for capping every class at six is set out in about us.
Ask about P4 Math
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