How to help with Year 7 maths homework (even if you've forgotten the maths)

Ask, don't tell

When your child is stuck, these questions do more than showing them the answer:

• "What is the question actually asking for?"
• "What do you already know that might help?"
• "Is there a similar example in your book or notes?"
• "Can you try it with simpler numbers first?"
• "How could you check if your answer makes sense?"

The topics that most often cause trouble

• Negative numbers, especially subtracting a negative. A number line helps. See our negative numbers notes.
• Fractions: adding fractions with different denominators and finding a fraction of an amount. See fractions, decimals and percentages.
• Algebra: collecting like terms and solving equations step by step. See algebra basics.
• Order of operations (BIDMAS): doing powers before multiplication, and multiplication before addition.

Methods may look different now

Schools often teach the same idea in a different way from how parents learned it, for example using bar models for fractions or ratio. If your method gives the right answer but looks unfamiliar to your child, ask them to show you their way first. Mixing methods mid-homework causes more confusion than it solves.

When they're still stuck

• Let them write down where they got stuck and ask the teacher. That is useful information for the teacher too.
• Look for a worked example on the same topic and try a similar question together.
• If the same topic keeps coming up, it is a gap worth fixing properly rather than homework by homework.

With Notenix KS3, your child can send a photo of a homework question they're stuck on and a tutor replies with the method, step by step. It is part of the free week.