Evaluation of Whizz Education: Maths-Whizz Intelligent Tutoring Programme

School Information Sheet [PDF]
School Privacy Notice [PDF]
Parent/Carer Privacy Notice [PDF]
Frequently Asked Questions [PDF]

What is the Maths-Whizz Intelligent Tutoring Programme?

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) have commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to evaluate the efficacy of Whizz Education’s (Whizz) virtual Maths-Whizz (MW) intelligent tutoring programme supported by tailored educational expertise and implementation planning for schools. 

Whizz is founded on the belief that every child deserves a learning experience that caters to their individual needs and pace of learning. Whizz deploys learning outcomes focused programme which leverage the MW adaptive tutoring platform to effectively and consistently address pupil learning gaps and thereby accelerate progress in maths. This efficacy trial will assess the impact of the programme on mathematics outcomes for Years 2, 3, 4 and 5 pupils during the 2024-2025 academic year. View Whizz’s privacy notice. 

Who is conducting the trial? 

EEF has commissioned and funded this trial. NFER is conducting the independent evaluation. Whizz will deliver the MW programme to schools. 

Which schools can take part? 

​​​To be eligible to participate in the trial, schools must meet the following criteria: 

  • Be an Infant or Primary school with children in Years 2, 3, 4 and 5 as of 1 September 2024. 
  • Not have mixed age year groups (i.e. children who are from more than one-year group within the same class) in any of Years 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the 2024-25 academic year. 
  • Not have implemented Maths-Whizz or any Whizz associated services in the 2023-24 academic year. 
  • Not be participating in another EEF-funded trial in the 2024-25 academic year. 
  • Have a suitable level of IT provision including devices such as tablets/laptops/desktops and sufficient wi-fi capacity (0.5 Mbps internet connection per concurrent pupil) (see Maths-Whizz minimum requirements). 
  • Agree to contribute £500 towards the cost of the programme (usual cost £1875 per school plus £25 per pupil per year). 

All participating schools will be committing to: 

  • Nominate a key contact with whom Whizz and NFER can liaise throughout the course of the trial.  
  • Nominate a Maths Ambassador at the implementation stage with whom Whizz will create an implementation plan for the school.  
  • Provide administrative data for all participating pupils in Years 1, 2, 3 and 4 in summer 2024.  
  • Participate in a 45-to-60-minute session with Whizz, school leadership and maths lead to develop implementation plan to determine the school’s vision for success, long-term and short-term goals, agree training dates and action milestones as well as reinforcing high level expectations. 
  • Teachers and one leadership team to attend two training and onboarding sessions with Whizz Education Success Partner (ESP). Further details can be found here [PDF].
  • Nominate teachers to receive training and lead on deployment of the Maths-Whizz intelligent tutoring platform for each class participating in this trial.  
  • Complete baseline testing (Renaissance Star Maths Assessment) with the nominated classes (currently in Years 1, 2, 3, and 4) and Maths and me survey with (Years 2, 3 and 4) in Summer 2024.  
  • Deliver Maths-Whizz to Years 2 and 4 or Years 3 and 5 depending on which year groups will receive the programme. 
  • Complete surveys sent to the class teachers in Summer 2024 and Summer 2025.  
  • Complete surveys sent to the Maths Ambassador in Summer 2025.  
  • If possible and where invited for the case study, host pupil group discussions and teacher interviews conducted by NFER researchers.  
  • Allow NFER test administrators to administer endpoint Renaissance Star Maths Assessment and Maths & me survey with the pupils in Summer 2025.  

Timeline for key activities 2024-2025  

View a detailed timeline of activities [PDF].

How will my school and teachers benefit from taking part?

The benefits will include: 

  • Contribute to evidence relating to the impact of the Whizz programme on mathematics outcomes for Years 2,3,4 and 5 pupils including for disadvantaged pupils. It will also help us understand how best to implement it in the future to accelerate learning outcomes for all. 
  • Full training, ongoing support and partnership from Whizz’s Education Success Partner (ESP) for the school. 
  • Access to the programme tools and resources at a subsidised rate with price advantages also available for continuation after the trial concludes. These resources can be used to enhance current teaching approaches.  
  • Teachers and school leaders can gain valuable insights and expertise to implement effective strategies to supplement maths instruction. 
  • Participating in a study can raise school's profile and reputation as an institution committed to continuous improvement and effectiveness. 
  • The findings from research trials can help inform education policy and practice, leading to systemic changes that benefit pupils. 

In addition to the above: 

  • All schools will receive thank you payment of £250 once all required data has been provided to NFER. 
  • Schools that participate in case study, will receive an additional £150 worth of Amazon voucher or book token. 

How will the findings be used? 

All participating schools will receive a link to the published report with trial findings and this will also be freely available on the NFER and the EEF websites.  

Who needs to give agreement for participation in the trial? 

Schools will join the trial once their headteacher has signed the MoU. Schools will be provided with an information sheet. 

We will provide schools with a letter for parents to inform them about the study and their child’s participation. Schools should share the letter with parents/carers of the pupils before providing their details with NFER. If any of the pupils are withdrawn from the trial by their parents/carers, their data should not be shared with NFER. 

NFER will conduct pupil group discussions in a small number of schools to gather pupils’ views and perceptions of the programme. Parents of pupils who are invited to participate in these group discussions will receive a separate letter and will be asked to actively consent to their child’s participation. 

The trial team really appreciate schools’ and participants’ support for the data collection. 

What happens if a school, teacher or pupil wants to withdraw from the trial? 

A school, teacher or pupil can withdraw from the trial and/or from their data being used in the trial at any time. If a school withdraws from the trial (i.e. decides not to complete the endpoint assessment), NFER will still use the trial data the school have provided and access NPD data for the school unless they tell NFER otherwise. 

If a teacher is replaced with another member of staff, both NFER and Whizz will need to be informed to make sure the staff’s contact details updated. 

Parents can choose to withdraw their child from the data collection of the trial at any time. They can do this by returning the form at the bottom of the parent letter (withdrawal slip) to their school. Schools must not provide data about children whose parents withdraw them from the data collection.

If the withdrawal takes place after the study commences, schools must contact the NFER team immediately to notify us of such pupils to be removed from datasets and subsequent analysis. 

How will NFER use and protect the data collected? 

All data gathered during the trial will be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, and GDPR, and will be treated in the strictest confidence by NFER. Your school’s key contact, class teachers and Maths Ambassador details for the study will be shared securely between Whizz and NFER using secure portal– so that we both can get in touch with schools to provide guidance, training information, collect pupil data, share surveys and arrange any case studies.  

NFER will upload pupil data to the Renaissance Learning online platform to enable the online baseline and endpoint assessment to be administered in schools to all pupils in the participating year groups. NFER will access pupil’s baseline and endpoint Renaissance Star Maths Assessment score from the Renaissance platform. 

NFER will share details of the pupils who are participating in the programme with Whizz using secure portal, so Whizz can set up MW platform for those pupils to access virtual tutoring.  

NFER will match the pupils’ data to further background data available in the National Pupil Database (NPD) such as gender, FSM eligibility SEN status. This will be done via the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service (SRS). 

All pupil-level and teacher level data that will be shared by schools and Whizz with NFER will be done so via a secure school portal. 

No school, teacher or pupil will be named in any report arising from this work, nor will we include any information that might mean that someone else could identify them. 

View the Privacy Notice [PDF] for the trial.

For more information on how EEF processes and uses your data, please see EEF’s privacy notice. 

How should my school sign up for this trial? 

Expressions of interest are currently being collected.

If your school is eligible for the trial, Whizz will send the Memorandum of Understanding for your school’s Headteacher to sign. 

Who can I contact for more information? 

If you want any further information about this trial, please contact Jishi Jose, NFER Researcher on [email protected].