Winner: Christ the Redeemer Primary, Belfast

It’s one thing to improve maths results - it’s another to make the subject fun, and to generate excitement across the school. Yet that was what Christ the Redeemer did.

Neil Watson, numeracy co-ordinator, started by ensuring every child was enrolled in World Maths Day, an event that gave them a chance to compete with pupils across the world and saw the school decked out in international flags.

Building on the buzz generated by the event, he introduced monthly maths challenges and set up league tables for different classes and year groups. But the school’s work on numeracy was not just about games - underpinning it was some close data monitoring, with pupils’ results carefully tracked.

If students began to slip below the results expected of young people with their IQs, the areas where they needed support were identified and they were set personalised targets. These approaches helped the number of pupils scoring highly in standardised tests to rise by 78 per cent.

Judges’ verdict: This was a closely fought category, with some very strong finalists. In the end it was the way Christ the Redeemer school had made the subject fun, and drawn pupils in, that shone out. The judges said the school had transformed its numeracy work and delivered some fantastic results.

Highly Commended

Falconbrook Primary, Battersea, London

“Action learning” was the key to this school’s numeracy initiative, which helped the proportion of pupils gaining level 4 rocket from 25 per cent to 97 per cent.