Times Tables Rock Stars (TTRS) continues to be the greatest phenomenon of learning times tables at Fielding as it is fun and challenging for all of our pupils. Through its carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practice, it ensures no child is left behind in practice and for those that are confident, over-practice is ensured to increase higher levels of automaticity.

 

To continue to encourage this high level of practice, we are transforming our half-termly 'Battle of the Bands' from all of KS2 to phase battles!

 

Since the start of term, pupils in years 3 -6  have been playing Times Tables Rock Stars  more frequently than ever before at home! Pupils are excited, enthusiastic, motivated and highly competitive to battle one another, play different modes and earn 'coins' to tweak their personalised rock star avatars. This in addition to the rigorous teaching of times tables in-class has already shown a progression in pupils' recall and fluency of multiplication/division facts.

 

Why is this important?

It is essential that pupils are fluent, confident and learn instant recall of times tables as without this, many future maths topics will elude pupils. Times tables are fundamental to many maths topics as mental maths facts and operations need to be able to be carried out quickly and with a degree of automaticity in order to free up pupils' working memory for newer, more challenging tasks at hand. 

 

What is a Battle of the Bands? 

A Battle of the Bands is a fun way to get groups of pupils competing against each other and a great way to sustain pupils' enthusiasm in practicing times tables on TTRS. This battle will be between all classes in Years 3, 4 and all classes in Years 5 and 6. 

 

When will it begin/end?

The Fielding Battle of the Bands will being on Friday 21st October from 4pm and will end on Sunday 30th October at 8pm. 

 

How to play:

Pupils can login via their personalised username and passwords. If they are unsure of this, they can check with their class teacher. 

Click here to access the site.
 

How to earn points: 

Every correct answer in any game type is worth 1 point towards the class team. Pupils can play in Garage, Rock Slam, Soundcheck, etc and earn 1 point per correct answer. 

 

Pupils should not confuse Battle points with coins! Coins are separate. They will still earn 10 coins per correct answer in the Garage, 5 per correct Soundcheck and 1 coin per correct answer everywhere else. 

Prizes

The winning class will be announced on Tuesday 1st November and will win: 

• The TTRS Wrangle Trophy to keep until the end of term
• An inflatable guitar to keep until the of term 
• TTRS Certificate

From the winning class, the pupil who scores the most points for their class team will win: 

• TTRS Keyring
• TTRS Pencil 
• TTRS Certificate 

 

TTRS promotes the "little and often" technique which is why pupils only need to play between 3-10 minutes a day as part of their daily practice and whilst doing this over the half-term they will be earning those points for their class band! To promote this further, a daily minutes restriction has been set to '10 minutes' to stop children from excessive screen-time during the half-term.

 

We look forward to see how this Battle of the Bands 'rocks' out and as the Maths Lead, I look forward to announcing the first winners for this academic year on Tuesday 1st November!