Primary maths assessment designed to inform teaching and planning, not just measure attainment.
Big Maths gives every teacher live weekly data on exactly where each child is and what to teach next. No end-of-year surprises. No bolt-on tracking software. No marking.
Maths assessment built into teaching… not added on top of it
Most primary maths assessment tools sit outside your teaching. Big Maths Beat That! is different, it is the spine of the whole programme. When curriculum, pedagogy, and tracking are one system, everything becomes simpler and more effective.
Typical approach
End-of-year tests that reveal gaps too late to act on. Separate tracking software that doesn’t connect to teaching. Hours of manual data entry that nobody has time for.
The Big Maths way
Weekly challenges children love. Scores recorded automatically. Live learning gap analysis allows you to decide what to teach each child next week. Workload reduced, not increased.
Start with a Baseline Assessment
We recommend giving every child a baseline assessment to identify their starting point precisely, not by age, but by what they actually know. This helps close learning gaps and establish a solid foundation from which children can build with confidence. By focusing on closing learning gaps for each child, you can also narrow the spread of attainment in your class. This simplifies planning, accelerates progress and raises attainment.
Identify learning gaps instantly
The baseline pinpoints each child’s most fundamental gaps immediately, so teaching is focused where it matters from day one.
Understand the spread of attainment
See the full range of ability in your class. Know who needs support and who is ready to move on, before you’ve planned a single lesson.
Measure against Age Related Expectations
See each child’s gap to ARE immediately, giving you and your leadership team a clear, honest starting picture before any teaching begins.
Establish the weekly assessment routine
From baseline onwards, the weekly cycle begins: Assess → Plan → Teach. It quickly becomes the natural heartbeat of your maths teaching.
Big Maths does not plan lessons based simply on chronological age. Assessment is designed to reveal each child’s current reality, and suggest that your teaching responds to that reality.
Big Maths Beat That!, your weekly maths assessment KS1 and KS2
Every week, every child takes their Beat That! challenges. Three challenges cover the full primary maths curriculum, Basic Skills, Number Facts, and Wider Maths skills, giving you a complete, current picture of every child’s attainment every single week.
CLIC Challenge
Assesses essential Basic Skills from early number through to advanced calculations. Every question maps to a specific step in the Big Maths framework, so gaps are identified at step level, not topic level.
Learn Its Challenge
Assesses instant recall of key number facts including times tables and number bonds. Tracks the fluency that underpins mental maths, the thing most assessment tools miss entirely.
SAFE Challenge
Assesses Wider Maths… Shape, Amounts, Fractions, and Explaining Data. Ensures the full primary maths curriculum is tracked every week, not just numeracy.
Beat your best ever score!
Children target their own best ever score. This makes every child’s improvement visible and worth celebrating. Schools consistently report it as ‘the moment their class comes alive each week‘.
Children typically stay on a challenge for 8–12 weeks, improving steadily as new skills are secured. When they move to the next challenge level, starting lower is expected and normal, children understand the process and trust it.
Automatic maths gap analysis. Zero marking.
When children complete challenges online, scores are recorded instantly and automatically. The system identifies each child’s learning gaps and populates the Tracking Area, with no manual input from teachers whatsoever.
Pupils complete challenges online
Children complete Beat That! on tablets, laptops, or desktop, which means teachers don’t have to collect papers, mark answers, or enter data. The system does it all.
Scores recorded instantly
Results appear in the Tracking Area the moment a challenge is submitted. No delay, no data entry, no spreadsheets.
Every question mapped to a learning step
Every question in every challenge maps to a specific step in the Big Maths framework. Each wrong answer tells you exactly which step needs teaching, not just which topic.
Learning gaps revealed immediately
The system highlights where each child has learning gaps, allowing you to make planning responsive, targeted, and effective, from the very next lesson.
If online access is a problem, or children are unable to complete challenges online for any reason, you can print personalised challenge sheets for each class at the click of a button.
Whole-school maths progress tracking which is always up to date
The Big Maths Tracking Area gives headteachers, maths leads, and class teachers a clear, current view of progress and attainment (for every child, every class, every year group), updated automatically every week.
Progress over time
Track how each child, class, or cohort progresses week-by-week across the year. Spot trends early. Measure the real impact of your teaching.
Flexible filters
Filter by year group, class, pupil group, or individual child. Compare performance across your school with a few clicks.
On-track, off-track, ahead of track
See every child’s attainment relative to Age Related Expectations at any point in the year, not just at the end of it.
Reports for Ofsted, governors, parents, and SLT
Generate reports at the click of a button. The data is always current, always there… no scrambling before inspection or parents’ evening.
Individual pupil progress report
Celebrate every child’s progress every week
Assessment in Big Maths isn’t just about data, it’s about motivation. The aspiration is that every week, every child has something to celebrate. Our Print Certificates tool automatically generates personalised certificates for pupils who:
Beat their personal best score
Personal improvement is what matters, not comparison with others. Every new personal best deserves recognition, however small the improvement.
Achieve full marks
Getting every question right on a challenge is a genuine achievement at any level. Children beam when they receive that certificate.
Get promoted to the next challenge
Moving up a challenge level is a measurable milestone, visible proof of real progress on each child’s individual maths journey.
When every child’s successes are celebrated, everyone is motivated to do better next week.
Assess → Plan → Teach. Every week.
In most primary schools, assessment and teaching operate separately. Tests happen at the end of a term or year. Gaps are identified too late to act on this year.
In Big Maths, assessment happens every Friday. Gaps appear in the system automatically. The Learning Gaps tool uses that data directly. The weekly cycle means assessment is never something extra, it is the engine that informs teaching.
“The difference between assessment of learning and assessment for learning… built into every week, not bolted on at the end.”
1. Assess
Pupils complete Beat That! challenges on Friday. Scores recorded automatically. Learning gaps identified instantly… no marking, no data entry.
2. Plan
Use the Learning Gaps data over the weekend or Monday morning. Know exactly which steps each child needs next. No guessing, no generic planning.
3. Teach
Deliver targeted lessons using the 15,000+ ready-made resources matched to each step. Next Friday, assess again and see the impact directly.
Frequently asked questions
Questions from maths leads, headteachers, and class teachers.
How does Big Maths assess primary maths pupils?
Big Maths uses weekly Beat That! challenges to assess every child across the full primary maths curriculum. Three challenges cover Basic Skills (CLIC), number fact recall (Learn Its), and Wider Maths (SAFE). Every question maps to a specific learning step in the Big Maths framework, so results don’t just show a score, they show exactly which steps are secure and which need teaching. Challenges can be completed online, with scores recorded and gaps identified automatically.
Is Big Maths Beat That! a standardised assessment?
Beat That! is a curriculum-referenced assessment, not a norm-referenced standardised test. Rather than producing an age-standardised score, it tells you precisely which learning steps are secure and which are not… referenced against Age Related Expectations term by term. This makes it more useful for day-to-day teaching than a standardised test, because it tells you what to teach next, not just where a child ranks nationally. Schools that need age-standardised scores alongside Big Maths can continue to use NFER or GL Assessment tests separately; the two approaches complement each other.
How does Big Maths identify maths learning gaps?
Gap identification happens at two points. First, a Baseline Assessment when a school joins Big Maths establishes each child’s starting position across the 1,200+ learning steps. From then on, the weekly Beat That! challenges continuously update the picture. Because every question maps to a specific step, each wrong answer identifies a specific gap, not just a broad area of weakness. The Learning Gaps tool in Big Maths Online displays these gaps by child, by class, and by year group, so teachers, maths leads, and headteachers can all see the same data instantly.
Can Big Maths tracking be used for Ofsted inspections?
Yes. The Big Maths Tracking Area generates reports suitable for Ofsted, governors, parents, and your SLT. Because data is updated every week rather than at year end, the tracking always reflects current attainment, not a historical snapshot. Schools can show progress over time, cohort attainment relative to ARE, and individual pupil journeys. Rockmount Primary School in Croydon, which uses Big Maths, was judged Outstanding across every category by Ofsted in June 2025 with mathematics as a deep-dive subject. See the evidence →
Does Big Maths replace our existing maths tracking system?
For most schools, yes. Big Maths Online includes everything needed for whole-school maths tracking from Early Years to Year 6 / Primary 7 (individual progress, class attainment, learning gap analysis, and age relate expectations) all updated automatically from the weekly Beat That! challenges. Many schools find they can remove separate tracking spreadsheets entirely. Schools that use additional standardised tests such as NFER or GL Assessment for benchmarking can continue to do so alongside Big Maths; the systems complement each other well.
How much teacher time does Big Maths assessment take each week?
When children complete challenges online, the total teacher time is the time it takes children to sit the challenges (typically 10 to 15 minutes). There is no marking, no data entry, and no report generation required. The system does all of it automatically. Teachers tell us that Big Maths assessment actually saves time compared to previous approaches, because they no longer spend time on marking, tracking spreadsheets, or trying to identify gaps from end-of-unit tests.
The weekly assessment cycle means I know exactly where every child is and what they need next. No guesswork, no waiting for half-term data drops. It’s transformed how I plan.
— Year 4 Teacher, West Yorkshire, England
See the tracking in action.
Book a free demo and we’ll walk you through the Baseline, Beat That!, and the Tracking Area.
Not ready to book? Send us a question or see how Big Maths works.