BIG MATHS BEAT THAT!
The ‘Assessment Spine’ of Big Maths!
‘Big Maths Beat That!’ is a set of three fun weekly challenges that help track progress and highlight learning gaps. Children love it because the goal is simple—beat your best score! This keeps them motivated and focused on improving their own learning.
What’s included in each challenge?
CLIC challenges focus on Basic Skills, building from single digit addition through to more complex calculations.
Learn Its focus on learning and recalling number facts (times tables and number bonds).
SAFE challenges cover Wider Maths (the rest of the maths curriculum).
- Counting
- Learn Its
- It’s Nothing New!
- Calculation
- Times tables
- Basic calculations
- Number bonds.
- Shape
- Amounts
- Fractions
- Explaining Data
Dynamic Formative Assessment
Every question in the three ‘Big Maths Beat That!’ challenges is directly linked to a specific step in the Big Maths framework. This means each answer gives you instant insight into a child’s learning, helping you identify gaps straight away. The weekly challenges clearly show where to focus your teaching next, making planning more targeted and effective.
Big Maths has provided the consistent, step-by-step approach to teaching maths that we were looking for. Every class now teaches maths the same way, basing it on Assessment for Learning and the children’s next steps.
Continuous Improvement
Children typically stay on a ‘Big Maths Beat That!’ challenge for 8 to 12 weeks (about one term), gradually improving their score each week as they learn new skills. When they move up to a new challenge, they might only get 3 or 4 questions right at first—but the beauty of Big Maths is that children understand this and embrace it.
They know that over the next 6 to 8 weeks, they’ll build the skills they need to improve. With trust in the process and regular practice, their scores go up week by week, until they’re ready to move on again.
We strongly recommend class celebrations every week for each child who:
- Beats their best ever score
- Gets full marks on a challenge
- Moves Up to a new challenge
You can print personalised certificates for each of these achievements, which we love to see shared using the #BigMaths hashtag on social media. Our Director, @AndrellCurtis tries to respond to every post he finds, but sometimes he can be a bit late.
Track Attainment and Progress
Our Tracking Area gives you a clear view of Progress, Attainment, Pupil Efficacy, and more—whether you’re looking at whole classes, specific groups, or individual pupils. In addition, our flexible filter tools allow you to compare progress across different age groups and year levels, making it easy to spot trends, track impact, and inform next steps.
Marking is finished!
It’s the 21st Century!
Our ‘Beat That! Challenges’ can be completed online, removing the need for marking—scores are automatically recorded in the system. When children complete their challenges digitally, you get instant insights through the Tracking Area with zero added workload.
For schools that aren’t fully set up for online use yet, don’t worry—you can still print personalised challenge sheets and enter pupil scores quickly and easily.
A Comprehensive Approach to Times Tables
Big Maths introduces times tables and number facts gradually, in line with your primary maths curriculum. Each term, children are given a new set of ‘Learn Its’—key number facts to master—so they have time to learn and embed them by the end of the term.
The Learn Its journey starts with simple facts like 1 + 1 and 2 + 2 at age 4–5, and builds steadily over the years. It all leads to the Ultimate Challenge at age 10, where children confidently recall all the number facts they’ve learned along the way.
Learn Its Number Facts
Includes Every Times Table Fact!
At Big Maths, we believe in keeping things simple. That’s why we took a fresh approach to make sure every child can confidently recall their times tables and number facts by age ten.
Big Maths simplifies the 144 multiplication facts down to just 36. This is possible because our learning steps help children understand key number relationships—like how 2 × 7 is the same as 7 × 2. We call this idea “It’s Nothing New”, making learning feel familiar and manageable.
Alongside these, we include 36 key addition facts, bringing the total to 72 Learn Its that children can confidently master over time.
But… what does this mean for teaching?
This structured method ensures that, by the age of ten, pupils have a solid foundation in number facts—empowering them to apply their knowledge confidently across the wider maths curriculum.
For more information about Learn Its…
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Big Maths is the way forward for transforming maths teaching in your school. Get in touch today to arrange a call and explore the best implementation approach for your team.