Our approach · bar model, CPA and visual maths
The bar model method: draw the problem before you calculate it.
The bar model method is a way of drawing a maths problem as bars, so children can see how the parts fit the whole before they choose an operation. We teach it through manipulatives first, then drawn bars, then the number sentence: the concrete, pictorial, abstract (CPA) approach. Everything else we do — the videos, the training days, the worksheets — exists to make that one habit survive contact with thirty children on a wet Tuesday.
How it works
Three steps, alwaysin this order.
The bar model method works in three steps, concrete then pictorial then abstract, and skipping a step stops it working. Most of what goes wrong with bar modelling in schools is a class that was moved to the drawing before the objects made sense.
Concrete
Manipulatives such as cubes and counters: anything the child can move.The maths is in their hands before it is on paper.
Jack has three more cubes than Jill — build it, don't write it.
Pictorial
The cubes become a drawn bar. Same structure, less to carry, and now it works for numbers too big to hold.
Two bars, one longer. The difference is the bit that sticks out.
Abstract
The number sentence, written last.By this point it is a description of something they can already see.
5x = 45. The bar was there first.
What this is, and isn't
We are not asking youto change your scheme.
You do not need to change your scheme: the bar model is a way of representing a problem, not a curriculum. This is the most common objection and the easiest to answer.
What people assume
—You have to drop what you already use
—It is a Singapore scheme you have to buy into
—It is a Year 5 and 6 thing for SATs
—Only the maths lead really needs it
—It is another initiative to launch in September
What actually happens
✓We are scheme-agnostic: we teach into whatever you already own
✓It is a representation, not a scheme or a resource pack
✓It starts in EYFS with ten frames, long before any bar
✓It only works if every teacher uses the same language
✓It is a habit, added to lessons you already teach
The progression
Where it starts,and where it ends up.
The bar model starts with ten frames in EYFS and ends up holding algebra by Year 7 and 8, and each stage assumes the one before it. This is why training one phase and not the others tends not to stick.
EYFS
Ten frames, subitising, more and fewer without counting
Year 1–2
Part-part-whole, the first drawn bars, difference
Year 3–4
Comparison, multiplication as repeated bars
Year 5–6
Fractions of an amount, ratio, multi-step problems
Year 7–8
The same bar, now holding x
See it beforeyou commit to it.
Three full lessons and the ten-episode series are free, with no email gate on the videos themselves.
Or book a twenty-minute call and we will tell you whether this is the right thing for your school.