In the beautifully complex landscape of what makes a highly effective maths education, we can be pretty sure that speedy recall of multiplication facts is an important part of the puzzle.

Research shows that factual fluency supports pupil learning of maths. Quick and effortless - “automatic” - recall of number bonds and times table facts, combined with conceptual understanding and procedural fluency, leads to mathematical success.

If today’s announcement of the results of the Year 4 multiplication tables check has you reflecting on your approach to teaching the times tables, here are five top tips based on the practice of great teachers in real classrooms and research findings.

1. Pretend there is no national test

I realise this sounds a little strange, but bear with me. Times tables facts are important - as are many other things in maths education - so let’s make sure they get the time and attention they deserve, but no more than that.

A risk of the national check is that children, parents and teachers learn the tables “for the test”. So, when you’re speaking to children, parents or colleagues about times tables, avoid using the test as your rationale.

If you make the national test - rather than the learning - the ultimate goal, you raise the stakes, increase anxiety and distort everyone’s sense of the purpose of education.

On the day of the multiplication tables check, make it entirely low key and indistinguishable from usual classroom practice.

Equally, do not reduce your emphasis on times tables once the check is over. Keep low-stakes retrieval of the times tables facts as part of your school week to the end of Year 4, and throughout Year 5 and beyond.

2. Remember there’s more to maths than multiplication

Let’s - please - not make this yet another way that we label children either “good” or “bad” at maths.

Try not to let children or their parents (or your colleagues) confuse speedy times table recall with being “good at maths”. In fact, try to avoid being comparative at all.

3. Teach multiplicative structure, meaning and connections

It’s well-established in research that peer discussion, different representations and a broad selection of strategies are more effective in teaching times tables than just repetition and practice of times tables alone.

Learners become aware of the connections between times tables and facts through a focus on meaning. As well as helping learners to use the facts they know to solve problems involving numbers beyond the multiplication tables, this enables them to derive facts when their memory proves unreliable.

Powerful models such as arrays (an arrangement of objects or pictures into rows and columns) give pupils access to multiplicative structures. Recognising the different groupings presented in the same array leads pupils to the knowledge that three groups of four is the same as four groups of three and, therefore, that multiplication is commutative.

Arrays also support pupils in developing a deeper understanding of the relationship between multiplication and division.

4. Use quizzes

Low-stakes quizzing is a really effective way to learn, not just a way to test for knowledge.

Research shows that testing your memory builds new memories, so taking tests can produce better recall of facts and a deeper understanding.

In fact, even if children have a go and can’t recall the right answer, it still helps them learn. Particularly if they are given the correct answer immediately afterwards and are then given a chance to try again.

With a growing body of evidence on the positive impact of retrieval practice, are we letting some learners down by not including sufficient quizzing?

Read more:

• What is the multiplication tables check?
• The 5 myths of maths - and how to shatter them
• Is this the ‘right’ way to teach early maths?

The belief that children will naturally become fluent through conceptual and relational understanding alone can sadly result in low expectations and attainment for many.

Worryingly, it seems this may particularly affect disadvantaged pupils. Of pupils who took the multiplication tables check in its first year, the average score for disadvantaged pupils was 17.9, while the average score for pupils not known to be disadvantaged was 20.5. That disadvantage gap has remained constant at 2.6 percentage points in 2023, with disadvantaged pupils scoring an average of 18.3 compared with 20.9.

By combining an emphasis on structure, meaning and connections, with regular low-stakes quizzing, teachers in our national partnership have seen the gap between disadvantaged and advantaged learners close, and scores increase for all.

5. Prioritise pride and alleviate anxiety

We know how important identity is in being a successful learner. Yes, having higher attainment gives you confidence, but feeling more confident can also improve your attainment.

Conversely, losing confidence in yourself as a learner of maths can decrease your capability or reduce your progress.

Maths anxiety is a real thing. So here are some ways to counter it:

• Celebrate pupils’ effort and commitment. Make their self-esteem and pride the top priority; the number of facts they can recall, and the speed at which they recall them, stays in service to that.
• Take it really slowly. Only introduce low-stakes quizzing on facts with which children are really familiar and secure, and only a small number of them, to start with.
• When you decide to introduce a timed element, go for the “how many can you get right in a minute?” approach rather than each question having a time limit.
• Don’t go anywhere near “you only have six seconds to answer each question” until the child is regularly and comfortably answering all of the facts you’ll be quizzing in less than six seconds.
• When introducing new facts, tackle a small number at a time and focus on structure. For example, introduce a new fact by working it out using known facts.
• Finally, as you progress through Year 4 and start to tackle quizzes that look more like the check, never suggest that the expectation or the “pass mark” is 25 out of 25.

Remember, we are pretending there is no national test - and that means there is nothing to pass.

Helen Drury is executive director of education at Ark Curriculum Plus