The Statutory Curriculum

The use of a calculator as a tool to carry out calculations is embedded within the National Curriculum Key Stage 2 Programme of Study for Mathematics. The use of calculators is assessed in the statutory tests at the end of Key Stage 2. Evidence from the analysis of test scripts shows that children are unsure about when and how they might use the calculator. They are not clear about using calculator methods or recording their method.

Within the Key Stage 2 Programme of Study, Ma2 Number (see Calculator methods) states that children should be taught to:

• use a calculator for calculations that involve several digits, including decimals
• use a calculator to solve number problems
• know how to enter and interpret money calculations and fractions
• know how to select the correct key sequence for calculations with more than one operation.

It is important that children become confident users of calculators. They need to recognise that the calculator is a tool they are in control of and to understand how it can help them to develop their mathematics. The key messages are that:

• the teacher controls the children's access to and use of the calculator
• the calculator is not a prop for calculations that can and should be carried out mentally or with pencil and paper
• calculators should not be used as a tool to carry out calculations until Year 4, when children are expected to be able to add and subtract two-digit whole numbers mentally and to derive and recall multiplication facts and the corresponding division facts to 10 × 10.