Rachel Dunsmore was teaching at Manor C of E Academy in York, part of the Hope Learning Trust when they started to roll out iPads so that every single child had their own device for maths lessons. She was delighted with the technology but felt their potential significantly exceeded their use.
'I was becoming increasingly aware of the educational discussions around memory and in particular the impact of retrieval practice on long-term memory,' she said. 'This was something that the iPads could administer far more effectively than I could. Furthermore, all the results could be recorded allowing spaced practice to be incorporated on a personalised basis. It struck me that the potential impact on progress was phenomenal.'
One incident set her on track to create her own app. She was revisiting the topic of straight line graphs with all year groups and found that most pupils could not remember what ‘gradient’ meant, let alone find one. This meant going back to basics all over again to reinforce both concepts and the language of maths.
Creating a secondary maths app from scratch
Rachel had a clear concept for the app. It was to make sure learners retained their prior knowledge of maths so they could move on without constantly going over old ground.
It has taken three years so far, has 15000 questions and has been produced with support from technology experts, cognitive scientists and experienced maths teachers.
With stalwart support from such a band of professionals, bringing the app to market should have been a straightforward process, but for a long time it was impossible to find an app designer who shared her views.