Money and change
Maths · Key Stage 1 · The School
Know your coins
The coins are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2. 100p makes £1 — that is the one fact everything else rests on. Sort real coins into piles and say each value aloud; the shapes and colours become familiar fast, and familiar coins make shop maths quick.
Many ways to make the same amount
Make 20p: one 20p; or 10p + 10p; or 10p + 5p + 5p; or twenty 1p coins. All are 20p. This is why money is such good practice for number bonds — it forces you to break numbers apart and put them back together in different ways, which is exactly what mental arithmetic is.
Change by counting on
You buy something for 65p and pay £1. Do not subtract — COUNT ON from 65 to 100: 65 to 70 is 5, 70 to 100 is 30, so the change is 35p. Shopkeepers have counted on like this for centuries because it is faster and mistakes are easier to spot.
Do not subtract. Count on from 65 to 100 in easy jumps. 65 to 70 is 5. 70 to 100 is 30. Add the jumps: 5 + 30 = 35p change. Now check by counting the coins a shopkeeper would hand you: 20p, 10p, 5p — that is 35p, and 65p + 35p = £1. Try it yourself for something costing 43p paid with £1: 43 to 50 is 7, 50 to 100 is 50, so 57p.