Half of disadvantaged pupils who are top attainers in maths at the end of Year 6 don’t go on to get a Grade 7 or higher at GCSE. Here at Axiom Maths we exist to change that. But there’s a long time between the ages of eleven and sixteen, so in order to make an impact where need to know when things go wrong.
The international data
There’s some indication of this in international data. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) looks at performance of Year 5 and Year 9 pupils in maths and science across a range of countries, and was most recently released in 2019. As it’s set internationally it’s not targeted specifically at the English school curriculum, and there’s no incentive for schools to teach to the test.
English pupils in Year 5 do very well at maths in TIMSS. Their performance has improved steadily over recent decades, and now only seven countries in the world score statistically significantly above England. Twenty-one percent of English Year 5 pupils scored as “advanced” in TIMSS in 2019, compared to an international average of seven percent.
The picture at Year 9 is less rosy. We still score well relative to other countries, but our scaled score is much lower and we haven’t seen a statistically significant improvement since 2007. The percentage of pupils scored as “advanced” drops to eleven percent, compared to an international average of five percent.
The data from TIMSS therefore suggests that something is going wrong between Year 5 and Year 9. This isn’t minor: the proportion of children getting the top score almost halves.
Our new research
We wanted to understand what was changing with pupils over this time period, and when those changes happened. We worked with a research agency to survey around 2000 pupils in Years 6–9 in July 2023, to find out more about their perceptions of maths. In this blog post we’ll focus on what they told us about maths at school. In the next post we’ll look at friendship groups and the impact these have.
It all changes in Year 7
We asked these pupils in Year 6-9 how they felt about maths, and looked at the answers split by prior attainment. Two interesting things jump out. First, high attainers become starkly more negative about maths in Year 7. Lots of these negative attitudes then improve by Year 9, but by then much damage has been done. Second, this is the opposite of what happens to low attainers.
High attainers’ perceptions of maths get sharply worse between Year 6 and Year 7. They’re less likely to think maths is fun (30% in Year 7 vs 40% in Year 6), more likely to think it’s easy (38% vs 27%) and twice as likely to think it’s boring (18% vs 9%).
Much of this gets better by Year 9 (fun returns to 38%, boring declines to 6%). But by then a significant number of children have fallen behind in maths or decided that it’s not for them. This is particularly the case for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, whose perceptions of maths don’t appear to recover as they get older.
Interestingly, we see almost the opposite pattern with low attainers. These pupils start finding maths more fun (29% vs 10%) and less stressful (28% vs 39%), before their attitudes decline again as they move into Year 9.
The high attainer’s experience
What is going on with these high attainers? It can’t be a general issue about secondary school, as it doesn’t apply to low attainers and doesn’t persist through into Key Stage 4. There is something particular about eleven and twelve year old high attainers.
Put yourself in the shoes of the Year 6 high attainer. You’re in a mixed ability class and know you’re doing well relative to others. In maths lessons you work through extension tasks, which are often puzzle-like and quite satisfying to do. You feel confident that your teacher thinks you’re clever.
In Year 7 everything changes. You’re in a top set class where everyone else is good, but people have different strengths and different gaps. You feel like you have to prove yourself in every lesson. Some of the lessons cover things you already know well because other pupils have gaps in them, but you still feel pressure to perform well and prove to the teacher that you’re good. You don’t want to risk being moved down a set.
This isn’t a problem with secondary school teachers. High attainers are slightly more likely to say their Year 7 teacher “makes learning fun” than their Year 6 teacher. But whilst they might think their teacher is trying to make learning more fun, they think that maths is less fun. This appears to come from a combination of finding the curriculum too easy or repetitive (there’s a >50% increase in the proportion of high attainers saying they are being taught “things I’ve already learned” in Year 7) and finding the experience of transition stressful (pupils in focus groups repeatedly tell us of the fear of being found out to be not good enough for top set).
The window of opportunity
At Axiom Maths we’ve spent months talking to eleven and twelve year olds about their experience of maths and what would make it better. We strongly believe that there is a window of opportunity where we can reach these high attaining pupils before their perceptions of maths take a negative hit. This is an opportunity we have to seize, because too many disadvantaged children never recover from that negative hit and stay turned off from maths.
Our programme is designed to be that intervention, to launch in that critical window of the first term of secondary school. It’s built to directly tackle the two things pupils tell us harm their perception of maths as a subject.
At a time when pupils start thinking maths is dull, we offer an enrichment curriculum of exciting maths that challenges and stimulates. It’s designed to get pupils into that state of flow where they lose track of time and immerse themselves in a fascinating problem.
And at a time when they start associating maths with pressure and stress, we help create a space that one pupil recently described as “relaxing”. There are no tests, no scores, and no getting moved down. It’s just maths, for the sheer joy of it.
We’re accepting expressions of interest for September 2025
We’re expanding the number of schools we can partner with for September 2024. The programme is fully funded, and includes all the support you need to seize this window of opportunity to catch your high attainers as they come into Year 7. But this is just the start. We commit to sticking with you and your pupils on a five year journey to their GCSEs, making sure that they are able to go on and achieve their potential in mathematics.
To express an interest and find out more, click here.