Withycombe Raleigh
C of E Primary School
Headteacher Mrs E Jones
KIRFs - Key Instant Recall Facts Autumn 2
KIRFs are a way of helping your child to learn by heart the key facts and information which they need to have instant recall of.
KIRFs are designed to support the development of mental maths skills that underpin much of the maths work in our school. They are particularly useful when calculating, adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. They contain number facts such as number bonds and times tables that need constant practice and rehearsal, so that children can recall them quickly and accurately.
Instant recall of facts helps enormously with mental agility in maths lessons and lowers the cognitive load required to solve problems. When children move on to written calculations, knowing these key facts is very beneficial.
For your child to be efficient in learning them easily, they need to be practiced frequently for short periods of time.
Top Tips
It's important to practice your KIRFs little and often. You don't have to practice them all at once - you could choose a fact for the day until you have remembered them all!
You could practice yours while walking to school, or during a car journey.
Things to try:
We'll give you year-appropriate ideas for things to try at home when we send you the KIRFs for your child each half term.
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For younger children you could count objects around the house, make piles and count them in order, and back again.
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Look at numbers around you, or on a walk – eg house numbers, numbers at the supermarket (how many apples in the bag etc).
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Sing number songs including ones where the numbers go backwards, eg five little monkeys jumping on the bed, or five speckled frogs.
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Older children can practice online by playing games at Maths Shed or Top Marks
