On the board you can see three different questions and a paper tally with marks counted in groups of five. First question: which of the three is most interesting to YOU? Second question: how many marks are in that tally, and what is the quick way to know without counting one by one?

Example 1: How do you get to school

The tally has been filled in for four categories: Walk, Cycle, Bus, Car. Every fifth mark crosses the four before it to make a gate. Count the gates first, then the extra strokes, to read each total fast.

Example 2: Missing gate-marks

Here the same count has been drawn as six separate upright strokes, no gates. Compare to the same six drawn as one gate plus one. Which is faster to read?

Example 3: Twenty-four marks made readable

Twenty-four single strokes in a row would take ages to count one by one. Drawn as gate-marks, they read as four full gates plus four, done in a glance.

Example 4: Same trick, different question

Here is the same gate-mark trick on a brand new question: favourite playground game. Same technique, different categories: tag, skipping, football, handball. The gates make any count easy to read, no matter what the question is.

We will draft our own question together. The class agrees on a question, names four clear categories for it, then pupils take turns at the board adding one tally each as the rest of us count 'one, two, three, four, GATE'. The frequency column to the right updates as the gates fill.