Take three hands-up estimates, not open call-outs. You want a rough sense ("a bit less than €50") before any method appears. Do not confirm an answer here. If a pupil blurts €35, acknowledge it as a good guess and hold it for checking later.

Point at the first bar and hold out for the two names: the part taken off and the part still paid. Ask for the actual euro on each before revealing.

• €60 jacket — 25% is a quarter; save €15, pay €45. Link "a quarter off" to "three quarters left".
• €80 game — 10% is the easy step (divide by ten): €8 off, pay €72.
• €200 bike — build 15% as 10% then half again (€20 + €10 = €30 off), pay €170.
• VAT bar — this is the turn of the lesson. The €11.50 of VAT sits on top of the €50, so the whole bar is €61.50. Redraw it on the board with the VAT part stacked visibly above the price line so the class sees it as an addition. Say plainly that VAT grows the total, discount shrinks it — pupils confuse the two.

Talk this through together as a class, no marking yet — the aim is for everyone to say the euro amounts aloud and agree them against the labels on each bar.

Start with the €40 jacket. The save part is 20% = €8. Ask for the pay part as a percentage first: 20% off keeps 80%, so €32. Revoice it as "take a fifth off, keep four fifths." Then read the €120 bill: 10% = €12 off, pay €108. Finish on the €30 + 23% VAT bar so the class sees the total is more than the net price: €6.90 VAT, €36.90 in total. Watch for pupils who "take 23% off" on the VAT bar, stop and remind them VAT is added on, not taken away.

This is the practice round — pupils take turns at the board, check each answer, and the class confirms before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

The first three are the access problems every pupil can begin with the 10%-first method. Hold the fourth for the stretch: the trap is applying VAT to the original €80. Make the class state aloud "the discount comes off first, so the VAT is 23% of €60, not €80." The €60 gives clean figures — 23% of €60 is €13.80 exactly, so nobody has to wrestle a half-cent.