We’ve been speaking with teachers from some of our Sumdog schools to learn more about how they’ve been using Sumdog with their pupils.
Jonathan McCabe is Year 5 Class Teacher and Assistant Headteacher at Trinity St Peters CE Primary School, Liverpool, UK.
Trinity St Peter’s is a one-form entry primary school with 7% of pupils qualifying for pupil premium funding. Jonathan’s Year 5 class and the rest of Key Stage 2 have been using Sumdog for over 5 years, after a teacher who had used it at another school recommended it and helped get them up and running.
Sumdog was one of the first maths apps we introduced to the school when we were looking for new ways to engage the children in their mental maths practice. Since then, we have been fortunate enough to roll out 1:1 devices, initially with some Year 5 and 6 classes and now all of KS2, which they can use to access Sumdog as part of their maths lessons.
In the morning, the children are given four calculations to complete on the board during registration time. Once they have completed their questions, they can then spend the remainder of the activity on Sumdog where they can brush up and practise their skills across a range of topics. We love how we can let Sumdog’s adaptivity tailor questions to each child, so they can play alongside each other and work at their own level.
“I've never seen any of the children reluctant to go on Sumdog.”
Alongside enjoying the variety of games that Sumdog offers, the children also love taking part in the Sumdog Maths contests. Our Year 5 class have already won the first North West contest of 2024 and last year, our Year 6 class beat 1734 classes to come top of the leaderboard in the England National contest. We’ve also seen the pupils participate more in the contest while at home and received great feedback from parents.
Our pupil’s attitude towards maths has been the biggest area where we’ve seen a change. The adaptive level-setting combined with the multiple-choice questions on Sumdog have really helped boost engagement. It’s made maths more fun and ultimately made the children more likely to want to sit down and do it. I’ve never seen any of the children reluctant to spend time on Sumdog.
We have a range of case studies form schools across the UK, all using Sumdog in a way that works for them and supports their pupils.