Here is a real problem from the shop. A tray holds 84 fairy cakes and they are being packed equally into 4 boxes for a bake sale. Roughly how many cakes go in each box, and where would you start working it out?

We will work these on the board one at a time, so only one sum is in focus at a moment. Watch the bus-stop bracket as we share the biggest place first, then work down through the columns. Notice what happens each time something is left over.

We work four divisions together, each one a step harder than the last:

1. 68 ÷ 4 — a clean carry from the tens.
2. 78 ÷ 6 — a bigger leftover to carry.
3. 255 ÷ 5 — a three-digit number.
4. 615 ÷ 5 — the leftover has to be carried twice.

The first one is on screen. Press Step through and the board works 68 ÷ 4 one place at a time, so the class can call out each place before it appears. Working shows or hides the written lines beside it, so you can hide them, ask for the answer, then show them to check.

The other three are worked on the board in the same order, with a different pupil up for each.

Key point Share the biggest place first every time, then carry any leftover down into the next column.

Today we solve these division problems from around town together: 48 medals shared into 4 boxes; then €92 shared between 4 friends; then 246 steps split over 3 days; then 365 cans packed into 5 crates. The last two are three-digit numbers. Read the words carefully to spot that each one means sharing equally.