For 25 years, Quest for Learning has been working collaboratively with local schools in Oxfordshire to help reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers. Nationally, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, disadvantaged pupils ended primary school on average 9.2 months behind their peers. Initial research shows that Covid-19 has widened this attainment gap by a further seven months.

This project is enabling 24 children struggling with mental maths in three of Oxfordshire’s most deprived schools, to have a major boost in their learning, grow in confidence and improve self-esteem by participating in Quest for Learning’s ‘NumSkills’ programme. NumSkills is a rich bank of resources which tutors use with groups of four children to help them improve their mental maths and calculation skills while having fun with mathematics. Without good english and maths skills, children are unable to access other parts of the curriculum and quickly fall behind in class. Literacy and numeracy are fundamental to children’s ability to engage with the rest of their education at primary school and beyond. These resources are designed to help children rehearse key mathematical skills and improve their mathematical fluency by using every day items such as playing cards, dice and counters. Children come to NumSkills sessions twice a week for 9 weeks and all sessions are run by qualified teachers.