Display the timetable as pupils settle. Remind the class the times are in 24-hour notation, so 13:55 reads as just before 2pm. Give about ten seconds of quiet look-time, then take two or three hands-up answers. Don't resolve it yet — that's what Watch and Notice does. Listen for whether pupils are reading the arrival column, not the departure one.

Reading the table: point along the Dublin row, then down to Cork for the same bus. Stress the column number stays the same as you move down; the row gives the place, the column gives the bus.

Journey length, 11:20 to 13:55: count on, never subtract the minute digits. 40 min up to 12:00, then 1 h 55 min on to 13:55, so 2 h 35 min. Ask them where to stop first.

Fastest service: 08:00 bus takes 3 h, 11:20 bus takes 2 h 35 min, so the later bus is faster. Pause and ask before revealing. Head off the idea that the first to leave is always fastest.

Sketch a circle for the Earth, Dublin one side, Sydney the other, to show why they face the sun at different moments.

East = ahead, west = behind. Keep stressing this.

Start from 15:00 in Dublin as the fixed point.

New York is 5 hours behind: count back from 15:00 to 10:00.

Sydney is 11 hours ahead: count on 11 hours from 15:00, slowing at midnight so the class sees it cross into the next day, landing on 02:00.

Use the same 15:00 start pupils will reproduce in their copybooks.

This round is for talking it through together — pupils take turns at the board and the class agrees or corrects out loud.

Bring an individual pupil to the board to tap the departure cell and the arrival cell; the class reads the elapsed time off the tool and agrees or corrects. Rotate three or four pupils. Watch for pupils reading the wrong column when they move down a row — remind them the column number stays fixed. Revoice a strong answer: so the bus leaves at 09:30 and arrives at 12:40, that's 3 hours 10 minutes.

Before the interactive, walk the worked example on the board. 08:00→11:00 = 3 h clean count-on. Then 11:20→13:55: stop at midday first (40 min), then 1 h 55 min, total 2 h 35 min. Ask which is shorter before confirming the later bus is faster.

Interactive challenges next — pupils predict, tap depart then arrive, then Check. Rotate three or four pupils. Slip to watch: drifting into the wrong column when moving down a row; remind them the column stays fixed. Revoice a strong one: leaves 09:30, arrives 12:40, that is 3 h 10 min.

Sydney stretch is board-only, not on the interactive. Count on 11 h from 17:00 with the class: 7 h to midnight, 4 h past → 04:00 the next day. Slip to head off: writing 28:00 or forgetting the day change.

Recap the count-on method for durations once more before moving on. Cross-curricular bridge: this links to geography work on the wider world and the position of countries east and west of Ireland.