Reception Jigsaw (RJ) is a professional development training package that aims to improve mathematics teaching and children’s outcomes in reception classes. It was developed and delivered by White Rose Maths. The RJ programme as evaluated by EEF was primarily aimed at reception teachers and teaching assistants, but also included Y1 staff, to build on the practices from Reception. RJ supports teaching staff to embed strong principles of early years mathematics teaching. It involved five face-to-face twilight sessions and five face to face coaching visits over an academic year. All ten sessions took place at the practitioners’ school and the coaching is tailored to the school’s needs. The programme includes resources and reflective journals.
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. This evaluation was co-funded by the EEF and the Department for Education as part of our Early Years professional development funding round, in which maths continuing professional development was identified as a priority, as it is an area in which less evidence has been generated to date.
EEF trialled this specific programme at efficacy level. This means EEF have trialled this programme in a smaller number of schools in best possible conditions. The efficacy trial found that children in Reception Jigsaw schools made, on average, the equivalent of one additional month of progress in maths compared to children in other schools (as measured at the end of the Reception year). This result has a high security rating: 4 out of 5 on the EEF padlock scale, means we are confident that this difference was due to the intervention and not to other factors. When just looking at pupils eligible for free for meals, the maths outcome suggested potentially less impact. However, this finding was based on a smaller sample of pupils and is less secure than the main result, and overall, there isn’t evidence to suggest pupils are differently impacted by the programme.
EEF are exploring conducting a larger trial of this programme, in which we will ensure a large enough sample of pupils eligible for FSM is included so we can get a more secure estimate of impact for this group. The evaluation also found evidence that the programme improved practitioners’ confidence in teaching maths to children, and exploratory analysis suggested that a slightly higher proportion of children in Reception Jigsaw schools achieved the expected level in the EYFSP Number and Numerical Pattern goals than in other schools.
Longitudinal follow up analysis was conducted when pupils reached the end of Year 1. This found that children who had been in Reception Jigsaw schools in their reception year also made an average of one month’s additional progress at the end of Year 1 compared to children in other schools, suggesting the impact was sustained over time.
Taken together, these positive results have led EEF to designate this as a ‘Promising Programme’.
- This was an efficacy trial, that took place in 138 schools. The schools were located in Yorkshire and Essex.
- 85% of the schools involved were Ofsted-rated Good or Outstanding schools. This is slightly lower than national average.
- Around 23% of the pupils in the schools had been eligible for free school meals at some point (EverFSM). This is around national average.
Staff from White Rose Maths deliver the twilight CPD and the coaching visits. In the version trialled, the training involved five CPD twilight sessions (each two hours), held face-to-face at each school and spaced across the academic year, and five half day in-school coaching visits over the course of an academic year, delivered by an Early Years Senior Leader in Education. The twilights were attended by Reception and Y1 teachers and the mathematics lead, and optional for Reception and Y1 Teaching Assistants. The coaching sessions were expected to be attended by (at least one of) the reception teachers. There are gap tasks in between sessions that reception teachers are asked to complete. The programme includes some resources such as number cards and dot plates.
The programme was well received by schools. Reception teachers reported particularly positively about the support they received throughout the Reception Jigsaw programme, finding it relevant to their teaching practice, high quality, and impactful in terms of the changes they made to their practice and environment. Year 1 teachers reported that it would help them with supporting pupils to transition from reception to Year 1, and to build on knowledge pupils had gained in reception. Very few teachers reported challenges in implementing the programme. Attendance was higher at the twilight than coaching sessions, and the analysis did find slightly higher impacts where teachers attended at least 9 of the 10 sessions (equivalent to two months’ additional progress), suggesting that schools attendance to sessions was related to pupil outcomes.
For the programme as trialled in the evaluation, the average cost of Reception Jigsaw for one school was around £5,807, or £45.50 per pupil per year when averaged over three years. The cost to schools varied depending on distance from the White Rose Maths head office in Halifax, and the figures used here represent an upper estimate at the time.
This is an estimate of holistic school costs to implement the programme at the time of the evaluation, schools will need to check the current cost of the programme through White Rose Maths.
The Reception Jigsaw programme is available to schools nationally. The version trialled involved all supports visits as face-to-face visits, but WRM also offer the option for some visits to be held remotely to support reduced costs. Schools should carefully consider how these options might support effective implementation of the programme.
Schools can find out more here.