Evaluation of Maths Champions

Maths Champions is an online professional development programme designed to support early years practitioners in helping children to develop their maths skills.

It was developed by the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) and is designed for private and not-for-profit preschools (e.g. nurseries, playgroups). This research project, funded by the EEF, evaluated the impacts of Maths Champions via a randomised controlled trial. One hundred and eight nurseries were randomly allocated to either participate in Maths Champions or continue with ‘business as usual’. The external evaluation was conducted by a team at the Universities of York and Durham. The University of Oxford provided support to the NDNA throughout the project. This included some initial advice in refining aspects of the programme prior to the start of the trial, and guidance in meeting the requirements of the external evaluation.

The security of the evaluation was weakened by the fact some children were not included in the final analysis, because they were not tested when the intervention ended. However, there was some evidence that children in participating nurseries made greater (i.e. 2 months extra) progress in maths.

Funder: Education Endowment Foundation
Start date: 2015
End date: 2018

Website: www.educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/maths-champions

The project’s final report was published in July 2018.