Third Space Learning

16/07/2026

After a nine-day delay, the SATs results are finally in – and 63% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths this year. That is the highest proportion since before the pandemic.

Maths specialist Emma Johnson has reviewed the national assessment data. Here are the headline numbers:

🔹 63% reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined
🔹 75% reached the expected standard in maths
🔹 75% reached the expected standard in reading
🔹 74% reached the expected standard in English grammar, punctuation and spelling
🔹 73% reached the expected standard in writing

If you've spent the year with a Year 6 cohort, you'll know how much that figure means. It's the clearest sign yet that attainment is recovering – and a solid starting point for deciding where to focus next.

What matters for your 2026/27 planning is:

🔹 How each subject moved
🔹 Where the gaps still are
🔹 What this year's data says about the cohort coming through

In the full analysis, Emma sets this year against the last seven years of results, digs into the maths outcomes specifically, and pulls out the practical next steps to take into September.

Read Emma's full SATs 2026 breakdown https://buff.ly/3XJaynm

11/06/2026

Most Pupil Premium maths intervention starts with an uncomfortable question: which pupils get a tutoring place this term, and which ones go without?

When intervention is priced per session, the budget runs out long before the need does. So schools ration. A handful of pupils get support, while others who need it just as much wait for next term, or next year.

In this free 30-minute webinar, two primary leaders share how they moved past that trade-off. Using a fixed-cost model, they rolled out personalised one-to-one AI maths tutoring across multiple year groups, reaching far more disadvantaged pupils than a per-session model ever allowed.

You'll hear from:
🔹 Simrat Mavi, Deputy Headteacher (SENDCo and Designated Lead CIC), St Giles Primary School
🔹 Connor McMahon, Assistant Head and Head of Maths, De Lacy Primary School
What you'll take away:
🔹 Why traditional Pupil Premium models force schools into rationing, and how a fixed-cost approach removes it
🔹 What to look for in any AI maths tutoring tool, from curriculum alignment and pedagogy to safeguarding and cost
🔹 How both schools run intervention day to day, and what the early data is showing

Free resources for everyone who registers:

✅ Maths intervention checklist
✅ AI tutoring guide
✅ AI tutoring policy
✅ 3 complete Year 6 maths revision lessons

Whether you're a maths lead, an SLT member or a trust decision-maker, this session is a practical blueprint for reaching the pupils who need support, not just the few a rationed budget allows.

Can't make it live? Register anyway and we'll send you the recording and all the resources.

Link to register 👉 https://buff.ly/gBCSMh7

10/06/2026

Congratulations to every secondary teacher whose Year 11s have just completed their final GCSE maths paper - the months of teaching, revision and hard work have paid off.

Now you've seen all three maths papers, we'd love to hear how this year's exams have landed in your school.

Each year, we ask thousands of secondary teachers how their students found the GCSE maths papers, and publish a review of the final paper. Last year's review became a go-to read in the days that followed. Your input will feed directly into the 2026 version.

The survey only takes a few minutes to complete. We're keen to hear:
🔹 How the papers compared to last year
🔹 How they compared to your expectations
🔹 Your approach to revision and exam practice
🔹 Which topics your students found hardest
🔹 The role AI played in your GCSE prep

As a small thank you, everyone who completes the survey before 3pm tomorrow (Thursday 11 June) will be entered into a prize draw for one of three £25 Amazon vouchers.

Link to survey 👉 https://buff.ly/u9BzGUf
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts!

09/06/2026

The maths attainment gap isn't closing fast enough. But Pupil Premium funding only stretches so far, and schools wanting to provide one-to-one maths interventions are forced to choose a handful of pupils they can afford to support.

At 4pm on Wednesday 24 June, senior leaders from one multi-academy trust will share how their schools moved from rationing tutoring places to supporting every disadvantaged pupil on their intervention plan.

Across four schools, every Pupil Premium pupil who needs it now gets personalised intervention - delivered by spoken AI maths tutor Skye.

Join the free 30-minute webinar to hear from:
🔹 Paul Coffey - Secondary Curriculum Lead at Third Space Learning
🔹 Chrissy Roberts - Associate Assistant Principal and Head of Maths, Bournville School
🔹 Natalie Thompson - Academy Improvement Advisor for Maths and Numeracy, Fairfax MAT

They'll walk through exactly how the four schools have implemented one-to-one support, and what their early mock data is showing.

What you'll learn in the webinar:

🔹 Why traditional Pupil Premium intervention models force schools into rationing
🔹 Delivering personalised one-to-one maths intervention to 15 students with one staff member
🔹 The early grade-movement data from Bournville's Year 11 cohort
🔹 How Bournville structure form-time tutoring four mornings a week
🔹 What's coming next for Year 7, Year 10 and incoming Year 6
🔹 Practical considerations for scaling AI maths intervention across a MAT
🔹 How safeguarding works with a closed AI system

Every attendee will also receive:

✅ Maths intervention checklist
✅ AI tutoring guide
✅ Complete GCSE revision lessons from our GCSE AI tutoring programme

Whether you're a Head of Maths, SLT lead or MAT decision-maker looking to scale maths intervention without scaling costs, this 30-minute session offers a practical, evidence-based blueprint for using Pupil Premium funding to reach every disadvantaged pupil who needs support.

Register free - https://buff.ly/pMC0Rvd

Can't make it live? Register anyway and we'll send you the replay.

05/06/2026

With just a week between Paper 2 and Paper 3, the most useful revision support for your Year 11s isn't more content. It's a clear sense of where to focus.

Christine Norledge, maths author and consultant for Third Space Learning, has analysed this year's Edexcel Paper 2 – and put together a recommended revision list for Paper 3.

By looking at what's come up across Papers 1 and 2, the analysis points to where the gaps are, so your final revision sessions can target the topics most likely to still be tested.

What's inside:
🔹 Priority Foundation topics to revise for Paper 3
🔹 Priority Higher topics to revise for Paper 3
🔹 The topics tested in depth on Paper 2
🔹 Which topics are most and least likely to appear on Paper 3, based on Papers 1 and 2
🔹 A downloadable Paper 3 revision list, with quick links to free targeted revision materials and worksheets
A few quick highlights from the analysis:
🔹Number marks on Higher Paper 2 were around double the usual level
🔹 Simultaneous equations at Higher hasn't appeared yet – Paper 3 is the last chance
🔹Cumulative frequency is the only Higher-only topic not yet tested in the series

No analysis can predict an exam paper, and students should keep covering the full syllabus. But for the final stretch, knowing the priorities helps every revision session count.

Link to full blog:

Edexcel GCSE Maths Paper 2 2026, what came up and what to revise for Paper 3: full analysis, plus Foundation and Higher revision priorities.

01/06/2026

GCSE Maths papers 2 and 3 are right around the corner. The release of our complete set of interactive Edexcel practice papers are now live just in time - Papers 1-3, Foundation and Higher

Here are three ways to use them this week before the final two exams:

🔹 Set one as homework for the whole class
🔹 Run one as a timed mock in your next revision lesson
🔹 Use all three yourself to spot the topics that still need one more pass before exam day

Full papers, sat on a tablet or laptop. Marked instantly, with mark schemes that show how marks are awarded for working. A live timer and question tracker so students learn to pace themselves. One-click revision links to topic recaps. And a personalised score breakdown and revision plan that students can download as a PDF and send to you.

Free for your Year 11s to sit now.

Link to the interactive papers 👇

Interactive GCSE papers for Edexcel Foundation and Higher. Work through questions, get instant marking, and see exactly which topics to focus on.

28/05/2026

Year 11 teachers - we've just launched the full set of interactive Edexcel practice papers (6 papers: 3 foundation, 3 higher).

Your Year 11s can now practise the final 2 papers, just in time for the real thing

Your students can sit full, timed papers on a tablet or laptop, with every answer marked the second they hit check:

🔹 Every answer marked instantly, with mark schemes that show how marks are awarded for working
🔹 A live timer and question tracker so students learn to pace themselves
🔹 One-click revision links straight to topic recaps for any question they get stuck on
🔹 A personalised score breakdown and revision plan that students can download as a PDF and send to you

Free for your Year 11s to sit now.

Link to the interactive papers 👇
https://buff.ly/UWKznwb

Interactive GCSE papers for Edexcel Foundation and Higher. Work through questions, get instant marking, and see exactly which topics to focus on.

22/05/2026

Year 6 content made up 43% of this year's KS2 maths SATs, including nearly half (48%) of Reasoning Paper 2.

Now the confidentiality period is over, we can finally dig into the details of this year’s maths SATs papers and see what Year 6s were up against!

Primary school maths expert Emma Johnson has gone through all three maths papers question by question, looking at domain coverage, recurring themes and the areas pupils found most challenging.

A few highlights from this year’s papers:

🔹 Upper KS2 content dropped to 68% - with less Year 5 content than in 2025
🔹 Year 3 content hit 14% - the highest proportion since 2017
🔹 Paper 2 was the most demanding; Paper 1 the most accessible
🔹 65% of questions covered just three areas: number & place value, calculations, and fractions, decimals & percentages
🔹 Ratio & proportion made up 9% of content - almost level with number & place value
🔹 Equivalent fractions, parallel and perpendicular lines, inverse operations, Roman numerals and converting time were among the topics that didn't appear at all this year

The full breakdown also includes top tips to help inform your 2027 SATs preparation.

Link to full blog:

A detailed look at the 2026 SATs maths papers, with insights for Year 6 teachers and Maths Leads on content coverage, difficulty and 2027 preparation.

19/05/2026

After GCSE Paper 1, every maths department asks the same question: what's most likely to come up in Paper 2 and Paper 3?

Topics that didn't come up on Paper 1 are now more likely on Papers 2 and 3. But analysing the paper and rebuilding a revision plan in the days between exams isn't realistic for most departments – not while also teaching, marking, and supporting Year 11s through the exam window.

That's where maths expert Christine Norledge's Paper 1 analysis comes in. It covers:

🔹 What came up on Paper 1
🔹 Revision focus lists for Paper 2 and Paper 3 – Higher and Foundation
🔹 A downloadable hit list of the topics most likely to appear next
🔹 5 practical tips for maximising marks on Papers 2 and 3

Link to the full blog 👇
https://buff.ly/bM9yXtq

18/05/2026

Curious to find out what teachers thought about this year's maths papers? 🤨

Well, look no further! Hundreds of teachers replied to our survey, sharing their thoughts - find out what was said 👀⬇️
https://buff.ly/yCr6VWe