At Elfrida, we use the Big Maths approach to teaching and learning in maths.  

We believe that basic skills are the foundation for all mathematical concepts. By learning these skills through fun and engaging lessons, leads to pupils developing key skills in reasoning, problem solving and fluency.  

Across the school children will have a 20 minute CLIC session everyday before their outer maths lesson.  The CLIC sessions cover all the basic number skills that the children need to apply during their outer maths sessions.  

CLIC stands for ‘Counting’, ‘Learn Its’, ‘It’s Nothing New’ and ‘Calculation’:

Counting - Children will count forwards and backwards in steps depending on their ability e.g. in 1s, 2s, 3s, 6s or even 25s!

Learn its - ‘Learn Its’ are addition facts and times tables facts. There are 72 Learns Its in total: 36 addition Learn Its and 36 multiplication Learn Its. These are facts that children need to learn off by heart! When asked ‘What is 6+4 ?’, they should give the answer as quickly (as quickly as telling you their name). As soon as they know 3 x 5 = 15 they also know 5 x 3 = 15 (this is known as a ‘Switcher’).

Its nothing new - This is the most important aspect of CLIC. It is the way children become successful and properly numerate. The idea that 5 things and 3 things are always 8 things is a fundamental concept. Children begin to learn the concept by counting random things (e.g. bananas, cats etc). Once children understand this concept, we change the ‘thing’ to other units (e.g. ‘tens’, so that 5 tens + 3 tens = 8 tens). It then becomes much easier to use standard measures (such as ml, m, cm, kg) whilst understanding the underlying number concepts.

Calculation - This aspect of CLIC is when we focus on developing the children’s understanding of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.