--- title: "MTC 2026 Post-Mortem: Why Timed Tests Trigger Maths Anxiety and How to Rebuild Confidence for Year 5 | XTables Champions" description: "The MTC 2026 window has closed. Elisa from XTables Champions explains why timed tests harm SEND pupils and what schools can do right now for Year 5." lang: en json-ld: | [ { "name": "XTables Champions", "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "WebSite", "url": "https://xtableschampions.com" }, { "name": "XTables Champions", "logo": "https://qtrypzzcjebvfcihiynt.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/base44-prod/public/68cac2c61c34894625d63273/cae3abbca_logo.png", "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Organization", "url": "https://xtableschampions.com" }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://math-magicians-academy-25d63273.base44.app/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "mtc 2026 send maths anxiety rebuild confidence year 5", "item": "https://math-magicians-academy-25d63273.base44.app/mtc-2026-send-maths-anxiety-rebuild-confidence-year-5" } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "Why do SEND pupils often struggle with the Multiplication Tables Check?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The MTC uses a 6-second timer per question in a digital interface, which is a format that can activate the threat response in children with maths anxiety, dyscalculia, ADHD or dyslexia. When anxiety is triggered, working memory is impaired, so children who genuinely know their times tables can still blank under that pressure. The timed format is the core challenge, not necessarily the knowledge itself." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What are the access arrangements for the Multiplication Tables Check?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The DfE provides official access arrangements for the MTC, including extended time per question, the ability to pause the timer, use of a prompter, and alternative input devices for pupils who cannot use a standard keyboard or mouse. Schools must apply for and document these arrangements ahead of the check window. Full details are in the DfE MTC administration guidance published each year." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What should schools do after the MTC window closes for SEND pupils who struggled?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The period between June and the following spring is the most important intervention window. Schools should focus on rebuilding confidence through low-pressure, engaging practice rather than replicating the timed drill format. Removing visible countdowns, using game-based or multiplayer formats, and providing frequent small wins are all approaches that work well for anxious and neurodivergent learners." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How can we help children with maths anxiety practise times tables without making the anxiety worse?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The key is separating practice from assessment pressure. Timed drilling replicates the stress of the test itself. Approaches that use familiar game mechanics, multiplayer engagement, and immediate positive feedback shift the emotional experience of practice from threat to play. For children with ADHD in particular, intrinsic motivation through enjoyable formats is often the only reliable route into sustained practice." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "When should schools start preparing Year 4 pupils for the MTC?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Most schools begin focused MTC preparation in the autumn or spring term of Year 4. However, the most effective preparation is not a sprint of drilling in the final weeks before the check. Building genuine fluency takes time, and for SEND or anxious learners it requires consistent, low-pressure exposure over many months. Starting in Year 3 with positive, engaging maths practice creates a much stronger foundation." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Are multiplayer maths games genuinely effective for SEND learners or just a gimmick?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Multiplayer and game-based formats are not just motivational dressing. For children with ADHD, the immediate feedback loop and social engagement of a multiplayer game create the conditions under which attention is sustained long enough for learning to happen. For anxious learners, a game context reduces the perceived stakes of making a mistake. The evidence base for game-based learning in maths is well established, and for neurodivergent learners the engagement mechanism is especially important." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is XTables Champions and how does it support SEND pupils?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "XTables Champions is a times-tables and maths fluency web app designed specifically with SEND, neurodivergent, and maths-anxious learners in mind. It uses multiplayer games built around formats children already enjoy, with careful attention to design choices that reduce pressure and increase engagement. It is aimed at Year 4 to 6 pupils and is intended to make the kind of regular, voluntary practice that builds real fluency feel like something children actually want to do." } } ] } ] --- [ XTables Champions Part of the ESSTA Kids family ](/Welcome) [About Us](/About)[Rewards ](/OurRewards) Tips & Tricks [Games](/Games)Login [ XTables Champions Part of the ESSTA Kids family ](/Welcome) [Learn](/levels-and-progression) [Games](/GamesOverview) [All Games](/GamesOverview)[Connect Four](/connect-four)[Guess Who?](/guess-who)[Times Tables Bingo](/times-tables-bingo)[Snap!](/snap)[Play with Friends](/games/play-with-friends)[Play against Champion](/games/play-against-champion) [Every Learner](/times-tables-for-every-learner) [Adaptive Learning](/adaptive-times-tables-learning) [Schools](/ForSchools) [Lunchtime Clubs](/LunchtimeClubs)[SENCO Support](/SchoolSencoInfo)[Homework Setting](/SchoolHomeworkSetting)[Whole-Class Games](/SchoolWholeClassGames)[Level Matching](/SchoolLevelMatching) [Wellbeing](/wellbeing-and-safeguarding) [Pricing](/pricing) Log In / Sign Up [Back to all articles](/Blog) # MTC 2026 Post-Mortem: Why Timed Tests Trigger Maths Anxiety and How to Rebuild Confidence for Year 5 21 June 2026 If your SEND pupils found the 2026 Multiplication Tables Check hard going, you are not imagining the problem, and you are not alone. The timed, digital format of the MTC is genuinely stressful for many neurodivergent children, and right now, with the data submission deadline of 26 June fresh in teachers' minds, is exactly the right moment to ask: what do we do next? The short answer is this. The MTC is over for another year, but the anxiety it surfaced is not. The children who struggled most are heading into Year 5, and they need a different kind of practice before the next check comes around. Not more timed pressure. Something that actually builds confidence. ## Why the MTC Format Is Particularly Hard for SEND Pupils When I looked into this after the DfE released its 2026 administration guidance, what stood out to me was how much of the official documentation focuses on access arrangements. There are provisions for additional time, for alternative input devices, for readers and scribes. The fact that so much of the guidance is dedicated to these arrangements tells its own story: the default format does not work for a significant proportion of children. The MTC gives pupils 6 seconds per question across 25 questions in a digital interface. For a child with dyscalculia, ADHD, dyslexia, or maths anxiety, that countdown is not a neutral feature. It is a pressure trigger. Research on maths anxiety is consistent on this point: timed testing activates the brain's threat response, which actively impairs working memory. The very skill being tested gets worse under the conditions of the test. **A child who genuinely knows their six times table can blank completely under a 6-second timer.** That is not a knowledge gap. That is anxiety doing what anxiety does. Access arrangements help at the point of assessment, but they do not build the underlying confidence that a child needs to feel genuinely fluent. That has to happen in the months before, in the everyday practice environment. ## What Schools Are Telling Us Right Now We are a young company, so I will be honest about the scale of what I am seeing. But in our early conversations with teachers and SENCOs, the pattern is clear. The MTC creates a spike of urgency in June, the data gets submitted, and then September arrives and the same cohort of children (now in Year 5, with a year to go until they might face the check again as a Year 6 catch-up concern) slides back to the bottom of the intervention pile. What we keep hearing is something like: "We know they need more practice, but every time we drill them on times tables it makes the anxiety worse, not better." That tension is real. Traditional flashcard drilling and worksheet repetition are not neutral activities for anxious learners. They replicate exactly the pressure that made the MTC difficult in the first place. As our founder Gal Darrash puts it, "The whole point is that practice should feel different from the test. If practice feels like a smaller version of the thing that scared them, you are not building confidence, you are reinforcing the fear." ## The Access Arrangements Gap Nobody Talks About The DfE guidance on MTC access arrangements is genuinely useful at the point of the check itself. Extended time, pausing the timer, use of a prompter: these are all legitimate and important. But here is what I think gets missed in the post-MTC conversation. Access arrangements are accommodations. They adjust the environment to reduce disadvantage. What they do not do is change how a child feels about their own maths ability. A child who needed extended time to complete the MTC still walks away with a score, and often with a story in their head about being the one who needed extra help. The work that matters most happens after the check, in the period from now until next spring. That is when schools have the chance to help children rebuild, or build for the first time, a genuine sense of competence with times tables. ## How to Approach the Rebuild for Year 5 From what I have read and from the conversations we are having, the approaches that work for anxious and neurodivergent learners share a few things in common. First, remove the visible countdown. Or at least, decouple the first stages of practice from any time pressure. Let fluency develop before speed is introduced. The 6-second MTC timer should not be the default setting for everyday practice. Second, use engagement that comes from within, not from external threat. Multiplayer formats, familiar game mechanics, a sense of play: these shift the emotional context of times tables practice from "test I might fail" to "game I want to play again". This is not a gimmick. For children with ADHD especially, intrinsic motivation is not a nice-to-have, it is the mechanism through which learning happens at all. Third, make progress visible in small increments. Neurodivergent learners often struggle with the abstract long-term goal of "know all your times tables". Concrete, immediate feedback on small achievements matters enormously for sustaining engagement. Fourth, involve parents. The MTC period often surfaces anxiety that carries home. Parents who understand how to support low-pressure practice at home are a real asset in the rebuild phase. ## What XTables Champions Is Built to Do XTables Champions is a times-tables and maths fluency web app designed specifically for children with maths anxiety, SEND needs, and neurodivergent learners. The core of what we have built is multiplayer games that children already recognise and want to play, layered over real times-tables practice. The idea is straightforward: if the emotional experience of practice is positive and motivating, children do more of it, and fluency builds naturally. We have thought carefully about the design choices that matter for SEND learners, from visual clarity to pacing to how feedback is delivered. We are not claiming to fix everything. But we are building something that tries to solve the exact problem that surfaces every June when the MTC data comes in: children who need more practice but for whom more pressure makes things worse. ## Talk to Us Before September If you are a Year 4 or 5 teacher, a SENCO, or a senior leader looking at your MTC data right now and thinking about what to do differently before next year, I would genuinely love to hear from you. We are a small, founder-led company and we are actively talking to schools to understand what is and is not working for SEND and anxious learners. If you want to see what XTables Champions looks like and talk through whether it fits your cohort, get in touch via [xtableschampions.com](https://www.xtableschampions.com). The summer term is nearly over, but the planning for next year starts now. ## Frequently Asked Questions Why do SEND pupils often struggle with the Multiplication Tables Check? What are the access arrangements for the Multiplication Tables Check? What should schools do after the MTC window closes for SEND pupils who struggled? How can we help children with maths anxiety practise times tables without making the anxiety worse? When should schools start preparing Year 4 pupils for the MTC? Are multiplayer maths games genuinely effective for SEND learners or just a gimmick? What is XTables Champions and how does it support SEND pupils? ## Ready to help your child? Join thousands of families using XTables Champions to make multiplication click. Get Started Free XTables Champions Game-based times tables for children aged 6 to 11. No timers, no tears. For parents, schools and tutors. Part of ESSTA Kids. #### Platform - [Schools](/ForSchools) - [Levels & Progression](/levels-and-progression) - [Our Programme](/Programme) - [Rewards](/OurRewards) - [Pricing](/pricing) - [About Us](/About) - [Learning Philosophy](/LearningPhilosophy) - [Contact](/Contact) #### Community - [Insights](/Insights) - [For Parents Blog](/Blog) - [Tips & Tricks](/TipsTricks) - [Success Stories](/SuccessStories) - [Events & Competitions](/Events) - [Live Results](/Results) - [Lunchtime Clubs](/LunchtimeClubs) #### ESSTA Kids Expert learning programmes for children who need extra support. [Visit esstakids.com →](https://esstakids.com) © 2026 XTables Champions, An ESSTA Kids Programme. All rights reserved. [Privacy Policy](/PrivacyPolicy)• [Terms & Conditions](/TermsConditions)• [Sitemap](/sitemap.xml) XTables Champions Game-based times tables for children aged 6 to 11. No timers, no tears. For parents, schools and tutors. Part of ESSTA Kids. #### Platform - [Schools](/ForSchools) - [Levels & Progression](/levels-and-progression) - [Our Programme](/Programme) - [Rewards](/OurRewards) - [Pricing](/pricing) - [About Us](/About) - [Learning Philosophy](/LearningPhilosophy) - [Contact](/Contact) #### Community - [Insights](/Insights) - [For Parents Blog](/Blog) - [Tips & Tricks](/TipsTricks) - [Success Stories](/SuccessStories) - [Events & Competitions](/Events) - [Live Results](/Results) - [Lunchtime Clubs](/LunchtimeClubs) #### ESSTA Kids Expert learning programmes for children who need extra support. [Visit esstakids.com →](https://esstakids.com) © 2026 XTables Champions, An ESSTA Kids Programme. All rights reserved. [Privacy Policy](/PrivacyPolicy)• [Terms & Conditions](/TermsConditions)• [Sitemap](/sitemap.xml)