Raising the Bar for Inclusive EdTech: Supporting Students of Determination in Mathematics

When I looked into this, what stood out immediately was the weight of institutional commitment behind it. The UAE Ministry of Education's inclusive education framework formally recognises Students of Determination, which is the country's term for learners with disabilities and additional needs, as a priority group. Premium international schools across Dubai and Abu Dhabi are not just encouraged to provide specialised support; in many cases they are required to demonstrate it.

This is not a quiet policy footnote. Schools are being asked to show how their technology, their staffing and their classroom approaches actually serve these pupils. And from the conversations we are having in the early days of XTables Champions, the gap between what schools want to offer and what existing maths tools actually deliver for neurodiverse learners is a recurring frustration.

Maths anxiety is real, it is measurable, and it is disproportionately common among children with SEND and neurodivergent profiles. A child with dyslexia, ADHD, dyscalculia or processing differences does not just find times tables hard in the way any child might. They often carry a layer of stress and avoidance into every maths session that a standard drill-based app simply compounds.

The design of the tool matters as much as the content inside it. An app that presents rapid-fire questions in a high-pressure, text-heavy format can actively harm a child with maths anxiety rather than help them. This is something I feel strongly about, and it is the core reason XTables Champions was built the way it was.

What we keep hearing from teachers and SENCOs is that children with additional needs are often just excluded from the fun parts of maths fluency practice. The engaging, multiplayer, game-based stuff tends to get designed for the mainstream and then retrofitted for SEND pupils, usually badly. That does not need to be the case.

Inclusive design in EdTech is not about adding a few accessibility toggles to an otherwise standard product. It means building from the ground up with neurodivergent learners in mind, so that the experience is welcoming for every child rather than adapted for some.

For maths fluency specifically, here is what that looks like in practice. Low-pressure entry points matter enormously. So does the ability to engage through familiar, beloved game formats that children already feel confident with, rather than intimidating quiz structures. Multiplayer modes, when designed thoughtfully, are particularly powerful for children who struggle with maths anxiety because they shift the social dynamic. The child is playing with peers, not being tested in isolation.

As our founder Gal Darrash puts it, "We built XTables Champions around the games children already love, because if a child feels safe and excited by the format, they can actually focus on the maths instead of dreading it."

This is the design philosophy at the heart of what we offer, and it is precisely why it translates so naturally into contexts like the UAE's inclusive education framework, where schools need tools that genuinely serve Students of Determination rather than just ticking a compliance box.

From the schools we speak to, the expectations in top-tier international school settings in the Gulf are high, and rightly so. Parents are investing significantly in their children's education and they want to see that every child, including those with additional needs, has access to provision that is thoughtful and effective.

SENCOs and senior leaders in these schools are often dealing with a wide range of needs in a single classroom, from English as an additional language to various diagnoses, all within a high-expectation academic environment. A maths fluency tool that works only for neurotypical, confident learners is simply not good enough for this context.

What I am seeing is that the schools making real progress in inclusive maths provision tend to share a few things in common. They choose tools where the engagement is intrinsic, not forced. They look for software that meets children where they are rather than where the curriculum assumes they should be. And they prioritise resources that their SENCOs and class teachers can both use without needing to run separate, parallel programmes for different groups of pupils.

One thing worth saying directly: introducing new EdTech into a school that is already managing complex needs and compliance requirements takes real buy-in. The best tools are the ones teachers and SENCOs genuinely want to use because they can see the difference in the children in front of them.

XTables Champions was designed so that the experience is immediately intuitive for children, including those who find transition to new software stressful. The familiar game formats reduce that barrier considerably. For senior leaders building an inclusive EdTech strategy, that ease of adoption is not a luxury, it is a practical necessity.

If you are a SENCO, Year 4-6 teacher or senior leader at an international school in the UAE or wider Middle East, and you are thinking about how to strengthen your maths provision for Students of Determination, I would genuinely love to hear from you.

Visit xtableschampions.com and get in touch directly. Tell us about your school, the pupils you are working with, and the gaps you are trying to fill. We are a young company and we are building this with schools rather than just for them, so your situation and your feedback genuinely shape what we do next.