Case study: An online math resource helped our pupils in lockdown at Monkton Park School
By Natasha Johnson, math coordinator, Monkfield Park Primary School, Cambridge.
Our school has used Math-Whizz for many years, mainly to focus precise interventions for our pupil premium children or those who require topic-specific intentions in math. We work closely with the team at Whizz Education, who, before the pandemic, provided training for our staff. They have also provided motivational trophies and medals for children who are achieving the three recommended progression points per week.
Since lockdowns and school closures took place, we have spread Math-Whizz across the whole school. When the children found out that they would all get a Math-Whizz account, they were thrilled. We now have a virtual trophy that I award each week to the class that has made the best use of Math-Whizz.
This is easy for me to monitor because Math-Whizz sends me a weekly report of our statistics. I also send messages to individual children in each class who have performed well, awarding them stickers for their superb effort. The best thing about the program is that the topics and levels are tailor-made for each pupil, so you can set it as a class task without the need to differentiate, as this is already built into the program.
You can also set allocated topics to coincide with other work that is taking place in math lessons, and again it will differentiate this to match each individual child’s current level of understanding. The available online webinars that support the use of the software have been a great help for the teachers, and there are some for parents to join in with too.
‘It has been a simple way to set work, and requires very little planning, marking and monitoring’
Math-Whizz has been a simple way to easily set effective work during school closures. It requires very little planning, marking and monitoring.
All it needs is a little motivational message each week to remind the children that their usage is being monitored, and there is a prize up for grabs for the best-achieving class.
My own daughter uses Math-Whizz and happily works through the tutor section before completing the tasks independently to gain her progress gems. As a parent, I find that Math-Whizz requires very little support and explaining, and she is able to move through topics that she finds challenging and gain understanding at her own pace.’