Every Friday morning, in schools across the UK, something happens that most maths lessons do not.
Children sit down, pick up their challenge, and try to beat their own best ever score. Not their classmate’s score. Not a national average. Their own personal best. And when the results come in, teachers know exactly what to teach next week. No marking. No spreadsheets. No guessing.
That is Big Maths Beat That!
What is Beat That! and why does it matter?
Beat That! is the weekly assessment at the spine of Big Maths. It is not a bolt-on test that sits outside your teaching. It is the engine that connects what children are learning to what teachers plan and deliver next.
Most primary schools assess maths at the end of a term or year. By the time the results come in, the gaps are months old and the children have moved on. Beat That! works differently. Assessment happens every week. Gaps appear in the system automatically. Teachers can respond within days, not months.
It is called Beat That! because the challenge is always personal. Every child targets their own previous best score. That single design decision changes everything about how children experience maths assessment.
Three challenges, one complete picture
Beat That! is made up of three separate challenges, each covering a different part of the primary maths curriculum.
The CLIC Challenge targets Basic Skills: counting, number knowledge, and calculation. Every question maps to a specific step in the Big Maths framework, so when a child gets something wrong, teachers know exactly which step needs attention, not just which broad topic.
The Learn Its Challenge tests instant recall of number facts, including addition facts and times tables. This is the fluency layer that most assessment tools miss entirely. A child who can work out 7 x 8 with effort is not the same as a child who knows it instantly. Beat That! tracks the difference.
The SAFE Challenge covers Wider Maths: Shape, Amounts, Fractions, and Explaining Data. This ensures the full primary maths curriculum is tracked every week, not just the numeracy core.
For an average child, completing all three challenges takes around 10 minutes. For an average class with enough devices, that is around 25 minutes of teacher time each week to complete a full curriculum assessment for every child.
Not all schools complete all three challenges every week. If you are not yet happy with the rate of progress and the spread of ability in your class, we recommend prioritising Basic Skills. Complete the CLIC and Learn Its challenges first. Add the SAFE challenge when you are confident the foundations are secure.
Friday morning, the best time of the week
We recommend completing Beat That! on Friday morning. The reason is simple: it means the week ends on a high.
When the challenges are done, Big Maths Online generates a PDF of personalised certificates for every child who has beaten their personal best, achieved full marks, or been promoted to the next challenge level. Teachers can scroll through the certificates on the whiteboard, with children slow clapping or stamping their feet as each one builds, then cheering when their friend’s certificate appears.
No challenge level appears on any certificate. A child working two years below their classmates who beats their personal best receives exactly the same certificate and exactly the same celebration as every other child in the room. The focus is always on progress, not position.
On Monday morning, the teacher can ask the class: who is going to get a certificate this week? By Friday, every child in the room is invested in the answer.
What happens to a child who seems stuck?
It is normal for a child to stay on the same challenge level for several weeks. Children typically spend 8 to 12 weeks on a challenge, improving steadily as new skills are secured.
Big Maths gives teachers insight and information, not instructions. If a child appears to be sticking, the teacher can use the tracking data to understand why, identify the specific steps that are not yet secure, and plan intervention accordingly. Resources are linked directly in the system, at the click of a button.
We also encourage teachers to share the tracking information with children directly. When children can see their own progress week by week, the journey becomes visible to them. That visibility builds motivation. It also sharpens the teacher’s focus: when you know what a child knows, you know what to teach them next. That is positive expectation in practice.
When a child is promoted to the next challenge level, starting lower is expected and normal. Children understand the process and trust it, because the whole system is built around progress being personal.
From Friday scores to Monday planning in 10 to 15 minutes
As soon as children complete their challenges, the Tracking and Learning Gaps tools in Big Maths Online are populated and ready for the teacher to review. Any question answered incorrectly by a child is recorded as a learning gap, available for the teacher to plan intervention the following week, with links to resources at the click of a button.
For an average class, it takes just 10 to 15 minutes each week to produce a precise, responsive update to the lesson plan for the coming week. No spreadsheets. No manual data entry. No guessing about what to teach next.
That is the Assess, Plan, Teach cycle that sits at the heart of Big Maths. Assessment on Friday. Planning over the weekend or Monday morning. Teaching all week. Then assess again on Friday and see the impact directly.
What senior leaders can see
Senior leaders have access to all data across the school through Big Maths Online. This includes detailed reports on attainment, progress, and pupil development across every class and year group. Leaders can also view lesson plans, Beat That! results, and administer all user accounts throughout the school.
The principle behind this open access is positive expectation. Data is not used to judge or compare teachers. It is used to facilitate conversation, provide support, and ensure the whole school is moving in the same direction. When a headteacher can see the same picture as every class teacher, the conversation between leadership and classroom becomes one joined-up discussion rather than a series of disconnected updates.
Beat That! and SEN/ASN pupils
Beat That! works particularly well for learners with SEN/ASN, because the entire system is built around progress rather than age.
Every learner’s journey begins with a Baseline Assessment that identifies exactly what they know and what comes next. From that point, their challenge level reflects their actual starting point, not their year group. A Year 4 child working at a Year 1 level takes a challenge that is right for them.
The gap between a child’s current level and Age Related Expectations is important information for teachers, SENCOs, and senior leaders. It is never communicated to the learner. The child’s focus is entirely on their own progress and their next step.
Because no challenge level appears on the certificate, every child celebrates the same way. The SEN/ASN child who beats their personal best this week stands up and gets cheered by their classmates, the same as everyone else. That matters more than most people realise.
An honest word about the baseline
When schools first join Big Maths and complete their Baseline Assessment, it is common for teachers to have an emotional response to what they find. The spread of ability is often larger than expected. Learning gaps are often more significant than previous assessments suggested.
This is normal. It does not reflect badly on the school, the teachers, or the children. It reflects reality. And knowing the reality is the first step to changing it.
We encourage senior leaders to prepare their staff for this moment. One approach that works well is to ask every teacher to share their data together: who has the largest spread of ability, the largest gap to Age Related Expectations? Making it a shared experience removes the sense of isolation. When teachers see that the picture is consistent across the school, the focus shifts quickly from worry to action.
For the first few weeks, the focus should be squarely on Basic Skills. Identify the learning gaps, target them directly, and watch the spread of ability begin to narrow. Only when teachers are confident in the rate of progress should they begin to consider a more standardised lesson approach.
The bottom line
Beat That! is not a test children dread. It is the moment the class comes alive each week.
It gives every child a personal challenge to aim for. It gives every teacher precise, current data on exactly where each child is. It gives senior leaders a whole-school picture that is always up to date. And it does all of this in around 25 minutes of lesson time each week, with no marking, no data entry, and no end-of-year surprises.
If you get progress right, attainment sorts itself out. Beat That! is how Big Maths makes progress visible, personal, and weekly.