Maths is probably the subject our students find the hardest. Unfortunately, in the past, their maths teachers have rushed onwards in a bid to ‘finish the course’ without checking that students have understood the basics.

So to help our weaker students catch up, we’ve been running free Extra Maths lessons before school. We’ve tried to make these a little different with simple things like using dice, sudoku and Top Trumps.

We tested them at the start of the course, and again two months later, and the students have made huge progress. In early September they only got 55% of answers correct, but after 15 sessions that figure jumped to 76%. Three students achieved 100%.