From six or seven children a year group to every pupil who needs it

Our biggest challenge is supporting our SEND children

Maths is going well for us. Our biggest challenge is supporting our SEND children to access concepts in their year group. Our SATs results have usually been strong, around 78-82% at expected and above, though our more recent cohorts have a higher level of SEND.

We originally looked into tutoring because we knew children needed extra intervention and support, and Third Space Learning offered interactive sessions catered to their needs alongside a lot of resources we can use in the classroom.

From seven children a year group to every pupil who needs it

We did the traditional tutoring at the beginning, but that was only for six or seven children per year group; the AI tutor allows for far more flexibility. The teachers love how accessible it is for all the pupils they want, whether that was a whole year group or just a small group.

We didn’t have reservations about it being AI. We had an initial meeting with Third Space Learning where it was made clear how it would work, and it’s worked out really well for us. This year, we ran it from Year 4 to Year 6. For Years 4 and 5, class teachers used assessment data to set up small interventions for the children who needed it most, including our disadvantaged pupils. Year 6 took a whole-year-group approach in preparation for SATs, starting with a smaller group, then opening it up to the rest of the year.

Sessions that fit around the school day

Sessions ran during the school day. One of our assemblies is dedicated to interventions, so many of the sessions happened in the morning, with smaller interventions in the afternoons as needed. Teachers set the areas they wanted the children to work in, and there was always an adult on hand in the smaller sessions to support if needed – though the children really enjoyed working independently. We’ve also been able to set sessions as homework through the self-launch feature.

The feedback from staff has been positive all round: they liked the flexibility, our pupils enjoyed the sessions, and it catered to all pupils and their needs.

What the teachers saw change

Our Year 4 teacher fed back that the children were getting on really well; she saw increasing confidence in class, in their mathematical language, their understanding of concepts, and how confidently they accessed their work.

Their performance improved too: even with arithmetic, where they were scoring quite low at the start of the year, there was a clear increase by their final practice assessment. We track this through our in-school assessments and provision maps, logging each child’s starting and end grade for every intervention.

Set specific learning areas for each child

The tutoring has met my expectations really well. With traditional teacher-led interventions, you tend to do the same work with the whole group. So I really like that with Third Space Learning, you can set specific learning areas for each child, so not everyone has to do the same thing. Having the SATs revision unit available in the run-up to the tests was also really valuable, because that targeted practice is the most beneficial way to recap.

The main benefit is the flexibility. School life changes day to day, so being able to run this around everything else made a big difference and reduced teacher stress and workload. It’s accessible across a range of year groups, and the children kept a positive attitude, they enjoyed it and didn’t get fed up the way they can with group interventions.

If another school were considering it, I’d tell them it’s nothing to be apprehensive about: it’s a really positive way to improve children’s mathematical understanding, and a genuinely useful additional resource to support them in maths.