Evaluation of Edge Hill University’s 1stClass@Number; a Mathematics Intervention for Children in Year 1

1stClass@Number is an intervention designed by Edge Hill University to be delivered by specially trained teacher assistants (TAs) to small groups of children who are struggling with mathematics in Key Stage 1. Half-hour lessons are delivered 3 times a week over a 10-week period alongside regular maths classes. These lessons focus on core aspects of number in the National Curriculum (place value, calculation and number sense), and include formative assessments and detailed lesson plans that are adapted by the TAs to the needs of children.

Oxford are evaluating the intervention by addressing two research questions:

i) do the children participating in the 1stClass@Number intervention show greater gains in mathematical development than a control group that does not participate in the intervention? and;
ii) do pupils eligible for free school meals benefit as much from the intervention as those not eligible for free school means?

The evaluation will utilise (amongst other tools) a measure of mathematical reasoning for children in years 2-4 developed by Terezinha Nunes and colleagues from the Children Learning Group.