Yesterday on Twitter I asked a question that had been asked of me: “Help: looking for web resources for 14 year old girl struggling with maths, particularly fractions, & maths confidence.“

I love Twitter for this kind of thing. People are so helpful. I am grateful to @SteelingSeconds, @Samuel_Hansen, @fittdr, @Domestic_jules, @ColetteWeston, @nick4glengate and @christianp for their answers. Also huge thanks to the following, who retweeted my question: @UKRC, @Hel_TCW, @kunglu, @Mwmyn, @afriquanwoman, @MoreUtterPiffle and @Loiscarter. Here are the responses I got:

The Khan Academy

Recommended by @SteelingSeconds and @Samuel_Hansen, The Khan Academy is a set of free videos explaining maths topics at a variety of topics, with a corresponding set of exercises. Here’s a description from the website:

The mission of the Khan Academy is to provide a world-class education, for free, to anyone in the world. It consists of 1700+ (and growing) videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic to advanced calculus, chemistry and biology, along with a series of exercises that allow students to practice and assess their knowledge at their own pace.

Since my specific question was about fractions, here is an example of multiplying fractions:

Primary Resources: Maths

Although it goes back to Primary Maths, @fittdr suggests Primary Resources and says she “found it to be good revision for my kids”. The site describes itself as “Free lesson plans, activity ideas and resources for primary teachers.” For example, here is an exercise sheet on adding and subtracting fractions.

BBC Bitesize

@Domestic_jules and @ColetteWeston both recommend BBC Bitesize, a site which covers KS1-KS4 in England. The site has a series of reading material, activities and quizzes for self-testing. For example, here is a link to the KS3 fractions section.

nrich

@Domestic_jules also recommends nrich, a site with hundreds of classroom resources indexed by topic. For example, this Fractions Jigsaw.

MyMaths

@nick4glengate says his 13 year old likes the MyMaths website. This is a subscription service. There are some free samples available on the website, for example this game on ratios.

Mangahigh

@christianp says Mangahigh “really is very good”. Backed by Marcus du Sautoy, the website says:

Mangahigh is the first maths games site to teach the UK National Curriculum entirely through games. Our unique, curriculum-compliant maths casual games go beyond the scope of any maths games previously developed, and inspire incredible enthusiasm in students.

The fractions game is Flower Power.