Kineton C of E Primary School
KIRFs
We have introduced KIRFs as a whole-school program for raising standards in Maths.
KIRFs (Key Instant Recall of Facts) are designed to support the development of the mental skills that underpin much of the maths work in schools. They are particularly useful when calculating, be it adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. An important part of maths development has always been rote learning of certain numeracy facts. For many years this has included practising times tables. We have added more structure to this throughout school with daily maths meetings or fluency sessions in every class.
Each half term children are given Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) to practise and learn at home as well as the work in school. These are sent home on A4 sheets and include practical ideas for parents / helpers to assist children in grasping the key facts. It is important that they know these thoroughly and can recall specific facts instantly.
Whilst children have a wide range of abilities in mathematics, the KIRFs are designed to be a set of facts that need to be learnt thoroughly as they build on each other year on year. Again, we stress that the children must aim to know their KIRF inside out, back to front and with instant recall.
We strongly encourage you to engage with your children in the learning of their KIRFs; fun, practical ideas are included on the sheet and should be undertaken regularly as part of their homework schedule. We know that, by internalising these key facts which have been carefully structured to build upon each other term by term, year by year, children will leave Kineton C of E Primary School with a much stronger foundation of mathematical understanding to build upon.
You can find a summary of each year group's KIRFS below.