The National Day Nurseries Association’s Maths Champions programme builds the knowledge of nursery practitioners to support children’s early mathematical development. It is an online, one-year programme delivered to both Private, Voluntary or Independent (PVI), maintained and school-based nursery settings.
In each setting, a ‘Maths Champion’ is selected: a senior member of staff who is supported to drive improvement in maths practice across the setting. This member of staff, with support of an allocated Deputy Maths Champion, is supported to audit current practice and create and implement an action plan for supporting colleagues to improve maths practice throughout the year. The support includes bespoke online training, including modules on early mathematical development and coaching, resources, and one-to-one support.
There is good evidence that high quality early numeracy approaches can be effective: EEF’s Early Years Teaching and Learning Toolkit shows that early numeracy interventions can have a high impact on children’s outcomes, including long-lasting effects which may help close the gap in achievement throughout life.
The EEF has run two trials of the Maths Champions programme, which both showed positive outcomes for children’s mathematical attainment. The EEF’s first trial found an impact of two additional months’ progress in maths for children who had received the Maths Champions programme compared to children in settings who did not receive the programme. The EEF then funded a larger effectiveness trial evaluation of programme (a large trial of the programme in circumstances that are as close as possible to everyday conditions), which had some programme amendments designed to improve outcomes. This found that children in PVI and school-based nurseries receiving the Maths Champions programme made an average of three additional months’ progress in maths and language compared to children in settings that did not receive the programme. These results have a very high security rating of 5 padlocks, the maximum on the EEF scale, meaning we are very confident that this difference was due to the programme and not to other factors. There were also indications of a larger impact for children in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium (equivalent of six months additional progress, though this was a smaller sample so should be interpreted with caution).
Furthermore, EEF commissioned a longitudinal follow up of the children who received the programme in the effectiveness trial to the end of Reception and found that children who received Maths Champions obtained higher EYFSP results than pupils who didn’t receive the programme, equivalent to two months additional progress for maths and language subscales of EYFSP. There is also indication that the larger impact for children eligible for EYPP maintained to end of Reception.
Overall, this provides strong evidence for the effectiveness of the Maths Champions programme for improving children’s maths outcomes in early years settings. EEF has designated Maths Champions a ‘Promising Programme’ and has been working to support the programme to be scaled to more early years settings in England, through the DfE’s Accelerator Fund.
- The latest published effectiveness trial took place in 134 early years nurseries (both PVI and school-based nurseries), located across the country.
- Just over half (53%) of the recruited nurseries were a PVI setting, and 47% a SN or maintained setting. The impact of the programme was not impacted by setting type, nor did it change substantially depending on the average number of hours the child attended the nursery per week.
- One inclusion criterion for the latest trial was the need to have a minimum of 15 children that were 3 – 4 years old.
- 13% of the children in the trial schools were eligible for EYPP, which is slightly above national average.
- A criterion for the programme was having a graduate practitioner or a practitioner qualified to at least Level 3 (Alevel/NVQ Level 3 or equivalent) who were responsible for leading the quality of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) at their nursery, who could be trained to become the Maths Champion. For nurseries in the trial, the highest level of early years qualification for DMCs varied between Level 3 to graduate level (Level 6), however the majority of nominated MCs were qualified to graduate level.
As the programme is delivered entirely online, the participating staff need access to a computer and internet connection. Nurseries need to allocate a ‘Maths Champion’ to lead the programme in their setting, who is qualified to at least Level 3. The programme also requires a ‘Deputy Maths Champion’ to be allocated, to support the Maths Champion to improve practice in the setting, who should also be qualified to at least Level 3. The training consists of an hour induction session, three online courses made up of e‑modules (approx. 2 hours each) covering content such as early years maths theory and how to support other staff in the nursery, optional monthly webinars and access to a bank of courses, some of which are mandatory to use.
Maths Champions are supported to audit maths provision in their setting and come up with an action plan to implement over the 12-month period of the programme. Maths Champions are supported through access to six one-to one coaching sessions throughout the 12-month period.
The programme was very well received by staff in the effectiveness trial, with no major barriers to implementing the programme identified by staff who participated. The Deputy Maths Champions role was found to enable the Maths Champion to effectively share responsibility of implementing the programme, which was viewed positively by nurseries.
For the programme as trialled in the latest evaluation, the average cost of the Maths Champions programme for one setting was £2,897 per nursery over a three-year period, or £28.39 per child per year when averaged over three years. This figure is based on 34 children per nursery per year, and includes costs for staff training, optional cover and optional materials.
The programme is currently available to nurseries for free through Accelerator Fund.
As Maths Champions has been shown to have positive impact on children’s outcomes in EEF trials, the Department for Education are fully funding delivery at scale in 2026, with 1800 places available for PVI, maintained and school-based nursery settings in England to access the programme at no cost.
Settings can find out more and express an interest in taking part here.