"Third Space Learning is not just for those pupils who need significant intervention, it hits every pupil."

We were facing two challenges with maths as a school: memory retention and lack of time spent on reasoning & problem solving.

In Year 6, trying to build on KS2 teaching that they can’t remember has a knock-on effect on reasoning and problem solving skills, and consequently, SATs outcomes.

Then, I came across Third Space Learning when visiting a Key Stage leader at another school in the Trust. I took it back to De Lacy and we’ve seen the benefits ever since.

All of the pupils we put forward for Third Space Learning this year passed their maths SATs, and a couple of those achieved Greater Depth.

We’ve seen the biggest benefits for pupils on the SATs programme, which gives them the opportunity to talk to one person about SATs-style reasoning problems at their own speed without the worry of the pace of the lesson, the outcome, or what their peers are doing.

The benefits we’ve seen as a school and as a Trust have not just been for those pupils we wanted to target for ARE to pass their SATs, we’ve also seen benefits for pupils who were targeted for GD.

For our pupils, Third Space Learning doesn’t just have an academic benefit, but a personal and social benefit as well.

The pupils have someone they can speak to about maths and get to feel that they’re the most important person in that moment. We get lots of positive feedback from them about their Third Space Learning sessions, they thoroughly enjoy it.

One pupil with SEND needs and autism often struggles with new things, but he took to Third Space Learning straight away.

It was a way in for him because it removed the barrier of his SEND needs. He went onto the SATs booster programme and the opportunity to talk about reasoning and receive instant feedback through one to one dialogue gave him so much confidence and really benefited his SATs results.

He was targeted for Greater Depth and the progress he made in maths through Third Space Learning led him to achieving it. This was a great success story for us!

I go into every session and check on them, it’s like a hive of activity and is absolutely brilliant to see!

The sessions run themselves, we just set up the laptops and headphones so pupils are ready to join their sessions at 8.30am and they’re buzzing! Listening to their discussions is gratifying because I know I’ve taught them something that they’re now building on. Now, when a slot becomes available we have a bank of 15-20 pupils who are very keen to be swapped in.

To a school or Trust thinking of signing up to Third Space Learning, I would say do it.

Third Space Learning is a cog in our intervention strategy wheel, it’s not just for those pupils who need significant intervention, it hits every pupil. It gives them a sense of ownership over their learning: pupils can view their progress and instantly see whether or not they are successful.

With budget cuts, government changes and teacher retention, we’re constantly facing an uphill battle. I meet with the other subject leaders in the Trust regularly to discuss how to give children the right level of support and Third Space Learning regularly comes up.

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