FEATURE: BRIDGING THE LEARNING GAP


confidence, informally assess gaps, and secure firm foundations with an emphasis on quality over quantity. While large class sizes continue to put teachers


under pressure, we have aimed to ease the burden by providing more than 1,250 pre- prepared lesson plans, enabling teachers to deliver tailored learning gains for children with a range of attainment. The Interactive games, lessons and exercises within the Maths-Whizz curriculum covers 98% of the curriculum. It rewards effort so helps build children’s confidence and they love it too. Children may believe they’re playing maths


shows that 46% of the 1,721 children assessed experienced a learning loss, exhibiting an average of knowledge decline of eight months during the first lockdown. This is hardly surprising in the face of severe disruptions this past year. Despite the tireless efforts of teachers to adapt lessons and provide remote classes, the global pandemic has had a drastic effect on pupils’ learning. It is also likely that those in our underserved


communities have been hardest hit - a sad consequence of the pandemic is that it has exacerbated the attainment gap, with disadvantaged students falling further behind due to lack of access to online learning during school closures. We’ve observed this in both the UK and globally.


Making learning gains At Whizz Education, we believe that every child deserves a learning experience that caters to their individual needs and pace of learning. We work closely in partnership with schools to develop quality bespoke learning programmes delivered via Maths-Whizz. The virtual tutor uses powerful AI to build a completely personalised plan for each child, and then continues to tailor it as they complete lessons to help mitigate learning loss but more importantly, so they can make learning gains. Our research shows with just 60 minutes per


week of Maths-Whizz over a six-week summer period, students can expect to acquire a 4-month learning advantage (based on an expected progress rate of 1.4 years, which has been verified by separate Whizz studies). This amounts to 0.17 years (2 months) of acquired knowledge compared to 0.20 years (2.4 months) of lost learning for those students not active on Maths- Whizz and not accessing other maths resources. Further, our research conducted with over


12,000 students and verified by independent experts – demonstrates that children who learn with Maths-Whizz Tutor for 45-60 minutes a week across the whole year, increases their Maths Age by an average of 18 months in their first year. These are gains which have been recorded in the UK and worldwide over fifteen years.


Making maths fun While we accept the phenomenon of learning loss and that particularly after this year, many students are possibly not where they should be or where we would like them to be, how this is presented and how it is addressed needs to be carefully managed to ensure students don’t feel penalised for something that is not their fault and to ensure teachers do not become overwhelmed. It’s vital that teachers can reconnect with students and work with parents to help build


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games, but really, they’re receiving one-to- one tuition from a virtual tutor. Maths-Whizz has proven results, designed by expert educationalists, and the ability to adapt to a child’s needs and pace of learning - all with the aim of giving each child a rounded maths profile, boosting their confidence, whilst making maths fun, and ultimately accelerating learning.


Commitment to learning Our own commitment to ensuring learning never stops begins with an effort to expand access to virtual tutoring. In the past year, this has translated into providing additional licenses to schools and across the world in areas like Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo where we are working with partners to make our virtual tutor accessible on affordable smart phones. In Thailand for example, it is being offered as a remote learning solution for summer camps. Each context has required its own adapted implementation. Closer to home, we have supported schools


during the Pandemic and the platform was “first aid” for our schools and parents. We enabled access for all parents whose schools were subscribed, so that they could support their children while the schools were sorting out the logistics and dealing with the ‘shock’ of learning from home. In this way we maintained our ‘triangle of success’ with students, teachers and parents. We have also been able to provide that


additional targeted help at home during the Pandemic, to ensure that each student’s needs are catered for. We have been able to support parents’ during this last year when home learning took precedent ensuring learning has been targeted to their child, so gaps are addressed while giving the parent an insight on areas where help is required.


Summer learning programs are an important


strategy to help address summer learning loss. Quality programmes that offer well designed content can not only mitigate loss but contribute to improve attainment. With this in mind, we have also launched our


Summer Learning Challenge https://www.whizz.com/summer-challenge- signup/ This new initiative is open to all schools and parents, designed to encourage students to continue ‘doing’ maths whilst having fun over the six-week summer holiday period. The aim of the challenge is to ensure measurable learning gains are made, helping students get ‘back on track’ by September and have fun doing so both on screen and outdoors. We understand the summer is an essential time


for teachers, parents and students to relax and recharge. Therefore, this initiative is intended to secure learning and engagement with minimal effort and maximum fun! With just 60 minutes per week the potential impact on learning gains is significant.


Knowledge can be regained Knowledge can be regained, and students can use the summer to turn the tables and make learning gains rather than experience further loss. We believe tools such as virtual tutoring platforms have a vital part to play as we move forward. For students, highly engaging and interactive


content, pitched at the right learning level means progression can become a fulfilling experience that brings joy to learning rather than a situation which introduces anxiety to catch-up. Virtual tutors can be used to address the


phenomenon of summer learning loss and also the loss experienced as a result of the school closures during the past year. With just an hour of access to our virtual tutor per week, children can expect around eight-nine weeks of progress over a six-week summer period, in all gaining a four-month advantage. Let’s work together to help close that summer learning loss gap.


References: [1] Cooper, G., & Sweller, J. (1987). Effects of schema acquisition and rule automation on mathematical problem-solving transfer. Journal Oof Education Psychology, 79(4), 347-362.


[2] https://www.whizzeducation.com/wp- content/uploads/Summer-learning-loss-SCREEN.pdf


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