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Welcome to the Parent and Carer guide to NRICH
As a parent or carer who's interested in their child's mathematical learning, you've come to the right place. The problems and games on this site are rich resources which are designed to meet the needs of young people aged 4 to 19. While the resources here are usually easy to understand, there's plenty of depth in them for a young mind to explore. We want your child to begin to think about
problems in the way a mathematician would.
Sometimes you'll want to discuss and think about a problem together. Sometimes it makes sense to be silent and let your child discover for themselves. Sometimes you'll be a student yourself - learning as you go. On each problem page there are some teachers' resources linked - these will give you ideas for prompt questions to extend your child's thinking. The menus on NRICH are organised
either for teachers or for students, but feel free to explore both.
About NRICH
The NRICH team is based at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University.
The project has a clear set of aims and the NRICH site is free to all users and is funded by a variety of philanthropic donors.
Contact
We communicate through our Facebook page and through X (Twitter) and through our monthly newsletter. If you have any queries or questions, email us at enquiries.nrich@maths.org.
Here's a quick guide to what's available:
o Problems and Games
o Finding Resources
o Exceptionally Mathematically Able
Problems and Games
Which should I choose?
A good starting point is the age of your child. Our problems are grouped into:
• Early Years: age 4-5
• Stage 1, lower primary: age 5-7
• Stage 2, upper primary: age 7-11
• Stage 3 and 4, lower secondary: age 11-16
• Stages 4 and 5, upper secondary: age 14-18
The stage that a problem is recommended for does not correspond to how easy or difficult the problem is, so don't be tempted to jump to the higher stages for harder problems! The stage given relates to the amount of knowledge that is needed to access the problem - so some Stage 1 and 2 problems are tricky logic problems that don't require knowledge of any Secondary school
topics.
What do the stars mean?
All our problems are designed to get you and your child thinking and offer lots of opportunities to extend that thinking. Each problem starts with a basic task, then it might suggest some extension activities. The stars tell you how easy we think it is to get started on the basic task, from easy (one star) to very challenging (three stars).
Are there solutions?
Our problems have solutions sent in by students from all around the world. Encourage your child to look at how their solution compares with others, particularly in terms of explanation and method.
On the site, there is always a Current Feature on the page for each age group. This is a selection of problems and games around a common theme, and a small number of these problems will be Open for Solutions. We don't include solutions to problems when they are first published but we do encourage students to send us their solutions so that we can edit and publish extracts from them later. The
closing date for these will be advertised and we will collate the entries and publish them shortly after the closing date. To find out more about what happens after you submit a solution read this article.
Why play games?
Games are enjoyable to play and offer a great way of developing logical thought and strategic thinking. We have some games that can be played against the computer such as Got it! and some that are two player games to play with a partner such as Nim-7.
For Two
We have adapted a selection of our primary tasks and games so they can be tackled by just one child working with an adult, hence the name For Two.
Finding Resources
Primary
Take a look at the Primary Curriculum page, and browse through some of our past features and the collections of our favourite resources. The curriculum mapping documents on that page match up our resources to different parts of the curriculum.
Secondary
Look through the Secondary Curriculum page, and browse through some of the collections of our favourite resources. The curriculum mapping documents on that page match up our resources to different parts of the curriculum.
Exceptionally Mathematically Able
Who do we mean when we are talking about the exceptionally mathematically able?
These children are those few at the top end of the ability spectrum. They may not necessarily be the high achievers in school. This may be because they are bored, unwilling to stand out as being different, or perhaps have a specific learning disability, such as dyslexia, which prevents them from accessing the whole curriculum. They are often the children who enjoy the novel and the new and
trying to make sense of it - 'the joy of banging your head against a mathematical wall, and then discovering that there may be ways of either going around or over that wall' Schoenfeld (1994).
Being the parent or carer of an exceptionally mathematically able child brings its rewards and, sometimes, frustrations. If you are a highly competent mathematician yourself, then you may enjoy sharing the beauty and rigour of maths with your child. If you're not, how can you support them in a constructive way? We offer ideas on how to support these children at all stages.
For more tips about how to help your child with their understanding of maths, take a look at this sheet of advice for parents from YouCubed.org.
You may also be interested in two books written by Rob Eastaway and Mike Askew:
Maths for Mums and Dads (focusing on primary mathematics)
More Maths for Mums and Dads (secondary mathematics)