How Maths Champions Multiply Early Years Outcomes

The Problem

I don’t know about you, but I found mathematics very daunting at school. I used to dread going to school when I knew we had a maths class. Looking back, I am sure I suffered from maths anxiety. I would feel a sense of panic running through me and try every trick in the book to avoid going to school.

Maths didn’t come naturally to me, and I was always made to feel stupid that I just couldn’t grasp some of the concepts. I also struggled to imagine how some of these equations were relevant to everyday life. Why did maths have to be so complicated? Why did we need trigonometry or algebra in later life? It didn’t make sense, but looking back now with a passion for lifelong learning, I understand why these things are important.

The journey for Maths Champions started in 2014 when practitioners with a level 3 qualification were also required to have a Mathematics GCSE at grade C or equivalent. A good proportion of early years practitioners didn’t have this qualification at the grade required, so we knew that progression for the existing workforce would be challenging. With my earlier experiences of maths, I knew how they might be feeling about any prospects of future progression being unattainable.

Staff are motivated when they have room to grow within their chosen occupation, but this could be a barrier to progression. I began considering solutions to the problem because we had started to see signs of a huge recruitment and retention issue. Staff were feeling demotivated and leaving because they did not feel able to progress, even though this maths requirement for early years educators was dropped in March 2017.

The Project

The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned NDNA to fully develop and deliver a project designed to enhance children’s mathematical experiences in early years settings. We were all concerned about practitioner progression and children’s mathematical skills, as reflected in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP)1 results in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

This programme was to provide support, training and guidance to Maths ‘Champions’ across settings in England. In turn, those Champions were to support practitioners in their setting in evaluating their own skills and confidence levels in mathematics.

Published research shows that the development of practitioner confidence is important in influencing children to be confident and successful learners. The more confidence practitioners have in a particular area, the more they are likely to use their skills and knowledge in their work. They are likely to spot more opportunities, use more mathematical language and extend learning further for the children they educate. Therefore, children are more likely to develop more mathematical skills and knowledge when practitioners are confident in their own skills.

Following an initial evaluation carried out by the Maths Champion during the programme, practitioners were helped to develop and improve their skills in understanding and teaching maths with the support of NDNA’s materials and tools. The project also supported a proportion of practitioners to access further maths training (if required) to improve their qualifications, such as progression to Early Years Educator level 3.

One of the audit tools within the programme was used to assess practitioner confidence levels. This covered practitioners’ own feelings about maths; how they felt about maths at school; how they use maths in their daily life and workplace; their confidence in teaching maths through play and talking to parents about their child’s mathematical development.

These initial audits showed that staff confidence levels were low or very low, especially in ‘high-level’ maths such as their understanding of fractions and percentages and in talking to parents about maths.

Poor experiences in maths at school affected many practitioners’ confidence and their enjoyment of maths. Maths Champions converted these audits into action plans to help them support each team member with low confidence. NDNA provided support tools with starting points for helping the Champions increase the confidence levels of their teams under each of the specified questions within the audit.

The Results

Practitioners repeated the audits at the end of the programme to evaluate whether participating in the project had raised their confidence levels. 93% of practitioners showed improvement in their confidence levels in supporting maths through play for under-fives. This has had a significant impact on the learning environment they provide for the children.

‘The confidence levels of the team have gone sky high. When we introduced the project we had a lot of negative comments because they were afraid of what ‘maths’ they needed to do, they were all scared… now they actively choose to do more maths and access more support for their own needs’.

‘The staff have all been surprised by how good they are at maths when most felt that maths was a weakness at the beginning of the project’.

Comments from early years settings

Project findings from an external evaluation suggest that evaluating the confidence levels of practitioners and working to support increased confidence is the key to improving outcomes. Practitioners’ ability to access the resources, use of peer observations, mentoring, coaching, one-to-one discussion, training and other supervision techniques have been instrumental in raising confidence levels.

We were excited about the findings that showed the promise the Maths Champions programme demonstrated, so NDNA secured funding through the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) for an evaluation of Maths Champions to independently measure the impact on children’s learning.

This first trial was a small-scale pilot with six settings in January 2016, followed by a larger scale evaluation with 108 private, voluntary and independent (PVI) early years settings. This was delivered to graduate practitioners in 2016/2017 and reached 628 children aged 3-4.

This effectiveness trial was independently evaluated by the University of York and Durham University. They found that children who participated in Maths Champions made the equivalent of two additional months’ progress in maths, on average, relative to children in the comparison group. However, because 36% of children who started the trial were unavailable and not included in the final analysis, the study showed low security.

This first trial was a great learning experience and enabled us to think about how the programme was structured and the content within it. The programme showed promise in improving children’s outcomes, but some of the methods used to develop staff confidence in maths were not well engaged with.

‘The staff were more engaged in parts of the programme concerning children, activities and outcomes and those e-learning courses than refreshing/learning for their own CPD’.

Comments from early years settings

NDNA took this learning and worked with maths expert Dr Sue Gifford to improve the programme whilst preparing for a further randomised control trial (RCT) supported by EEF and DfE. Improvements focused on how the confidence of practitioners could be developed through day-to-day practice, providing participants with a comprehensive understanding of the main areas of early years maths.

This second trial engaged 140 PVI and maintained school nursery settings and 1,400 children aged 3-4. Within this trial, the practitioner qualification requirements were reflective of day-to-day conditions as we knew that many nurseries no longer had a graduate lead. Practitioners qualified to at least level 3 (A-level/NVQ level 3 or equivalent) who were responsible for leading the quality of the EYFS at their nursery were able to access the Maths Champions Programme.

EEF appointed the University of York and Durham University to carry out the two-armed cluster RCT. The key conclusion from this second study reported in July 2023 demonstrated:

‘Children in nurseries allocated to the intervention group (those settings receiving the Maths Champions Programme) made, on average, three months’ additional progress in maths and language attainment compared to the children in the control group (those settings not receiving the Maths Champions Programme). Children eligible for Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) in the intervention nurseries made, on average, the equivalent of six months’ additional progress in maths attainment compared to children eligible for EYPP in control nurseries.

These results, while promising, should be treated with more caution than the analysis of all pupils as fewer children were included in this analysis.’

EEF’s independent evaluation of Maths Champions

The second study’s effectiveness trial showed high-security findings, which tested whether the intervention worked under everyday conditions in a large number of settings.

The report was revised again in June 2024 to add the results of a pre-planned longitudinal analysis, looking at long-term outcomes collected from the National Pupil Database (NPD) for children recruited into the trial.

‘Subsequent analysis was conducted using Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) assessment data from the National Pupil Database (NPD) to assess the potential long-term impact of Maths Champions on children’s attainment. This exploratory analysis found that children in nurseries allocated to the intervention group made, on average, the equivalent of two months’ additional progress in mathematics and language attainment compared to children in control nurseries, as well as being slightly more likely to attain a Good Level of Development (GLD) compared to children in control nurseries (equating to approximately one month’s additional progress).

Children eligible for EYPP in the intervention nurseries made, on average, the equivalent of six months’ additional progress in mathematics attainment compared to children eligible for EYPP in control nurseries (these results should be treated with more caution as fewer children were included in this analysis).‘

Analysis of the second study

We were delighted to find that children attending nurseries that participated in the Maths Champion programme have sustained additional progress into their primary schooling.

So What’s Next?

It’s been a long but worthwhile 10-year journey. Our next steps have been scaling delivery; in October 2023 we began recruiting a further 405 nurseries through EEF and DfE Accelerator Funds. But our plans don’t stop here. We want to support more and more practitioners in developing confidence and a love for maths. We want to support more children in improving their outcomes and future attainment.

Between October 2024 and April 2025, we will be recruiting 800 more nurseries (PVI and maintained settings), extending the delivery of Maths Champions throughout England which is being further supported by EEF and DfE Accelerator funds.

To find out more about the programme and how it works visit our Maths Champions page. Why not come along to one of our information sessions before signing up? We will tell you all about the programme and what it involves and give you the opportunity to ask any questions you might still have.

Stella Ziolkowski is Director of Quality and Training at the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA).