This article is brought to you by Slough Borough Council's Early Years team, on behalf of Education Endowment Foundation, for the attention of all Early Years leads.
What is Maths Through Picture Books?
Maths Through Picture Books (MTPB) is a targeted intervention that aims to improve maths attainment for reception-aged pupils (4 – 5 years old) through shared reading and responsive conversations based on carefully selected picture books.
Teaching Assistants (TAs) will deliver two 15-minute sessions per week over a 10-week period to small groups of five pupils who have been identified as not yet having a secure understanding of number. Sessions use the ShREC approach (Share attention, Respond, Expand, Conversation) to support sustained, multi-turn conversations about number and operations.
Who is leading this project?
Training is delivered by a team of expert educators from East London Research School (ELRS). ELRS have significant experience of developing and delivering effective professional development programmes and have designed Maths Through Picture Books.
What will this project look like in your setting?
If randomly assigned to the intervention (programme) group, a teacher and TA from each Reception class will attend two days of in-person training, an hour-long online module, three 45-minute network meetings and three one-hour calls with a mentor. Participants will have access to online resources and telephone support.
TAs – supported by teachers – will deliver small-group, maths-focused shared reading sessions which are intended to develop pupils’ secure understanding of numbers and increase their enjoyment of and motivation towards maths.
Intervention schools will be charged £100 per teacher/TA pair towards the cost of training and books. Schools allocated to the control group will continue with business as usual and will receive £300 for completing all evaluation activities.
As this is a research evaluation, both intervention (programme) and control (teaching-as-usual) schools will be required to complete some evaluation requirements. This includes supporting the evaluators with pupil assessments and completing surveys at the start and end of the programme. Staff in a small number of participating schools will be invited to take part in a voluntary telephone interview.
Who can take part?
To participate, schools must meet the following criteria:
- Be a state-funded mainstream primary school.
- Be willing to select 6 pupils likely to benefit from the programme from each reception class.
- Be in London, South East or East of England and within travelling distance of in-person training in London or Cambridge.
- Not be taking part in any other reception EEF projects in the same time period.
How can you register your interest?
Complete the short form at the bottom of this page.
There is a small but growing body of research evidence to support the use of storybooks to teach mathematics in the early years, particularly where structured talk is central to the approach. The EEF’s Early Years and Key Stage 1 Mathematics Evidence Review identified this as a promising approach, with six studies providing a large positive aggregate effect.
When used well, picture books offer meaningful and engaging contexts for exploring mathematical concepts. However, their impact depends largely on how the books are shared and discussed with pupils. A previous pilot study of Maths Through Picture Books found evidence of promise, with indicators of positive outcomes for both pupils and practitioners. This trial has therefore been commissioned to test the impact of the programme at a larger scale.
The programme will be evaluated by IFF Research through a randomised controlled trial. The evaluation will be an efficacy trial, meaning it will test the programme by comparing outcomes for schools randomly allocated to the intervention group (receiving the programme) with those allocated to the control group (continuing teaching as usual) under ideal conditions. The trial will assess the impact on pupils’ maths attainment and on educators’ early maths beliefs, confidence, knowledge and levels of maths anxiety. An implementation and process evaluation will also explore how the programme is delivered and schools’ perceptions of it.
Delivery is taking place in the 2026/27 academic year, and the evaluation report will be published in Spring 2028.
