The 2026 Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) is scheduled for 1–12 June 2026, and if your child is currently in Year 3 or just starting Year 4, that window is closer than it feels. For most children, the check is manageable with consistent practice. But for children with maths anxiety, SEND needs, or neurodivergent profiles, the standard approach to MTC prep can do real harm if it isn't handled carefully. That's exactly what I want to talk about here.
What the MTC Actually Involves
Every Year 4 pupil in England must complete the Multiplication Tables Check, which is delivered digitally and tests times tables from 2 to 12. Children answer 25 questions with six seconds per question and three seconds between questions. That's a tight, timed format, and for children who already carry anxiety around maths, that ticking clock can feel catastrophic.
The DfE does provide statutory guidance on access arrangements for pupils with SEND, including extra time and other adjustments. If your child has an EHCP or is on the SEND register, speak to your school's SENCO now, well ahead of June, to make sure any arrangements are requested and confirmed in time. Don't leave this until May.
Why Standard MTC Prep Often Backfires
When I looked into how most schools currently approach MTC preparation, the dominant methods are still flashcards, speed drills, and repeated written tests under timed conditions. For neurotypical children without anxiety, that can work fine. But for children who are already stressed about maths, drilling under pressure doesn't build fluency. It builds dread.
The research on maths anxiety is fairly clear on this: when a child is in a state of anxiety, working memory is disrupted. That means the very skills they've been practising become harder to access in the moment of the test. So a Year 4 child who can recite their 7 times table calmly at home might completely blank during a timed drill at school, not because they haven't learned it, but because their nervous system is getting in the way.
Neurodivergent children, including those with dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD or autism, often face additional layers here. Rote repetition in isolation doesn't tend to stick well for many of them. They often need more context, more movement, more variation, and more genuine engagement to build the same fluency that other children pick up through repetition alone.
What Actually Helps
From the schools and parents we've been speaking to as we've built XTables Champions, a few things come up again and again as genuinely helpful.
First: reduce the stakes of practice. If every practice session feels like a test, children who are already anxious will avoid it, or approach it in a shut-down state. Low-pressure, game-based practice lets the brain stay open to learning. When children feel like they're playing, not being assessed, they engage more, try more, and retain more.
Second: repetition needs to feel varied. Repeating the same drill in the same format quickly becomes aversive for many neurodivergent children. Mixing up the format, incorporating games, adding multiplayer elements where children feel like peers rather than subjects of an assessment, all of this keeps engagement up over the months of practice that actually matter.
Third: build slowly and celebrate small wins. A child who moves from blanking on their 6s to reliably knowing half of them deserves to feel that progress. Visible, tangible progress markers matter enormously for motivation, especially for children who've historically experienced maths as a source of failure.
As our founder Gal Darrash puts it, *"We built XTables Champions because we kept seeing kids who were bright and capable, but who had already decided they were 'bad at maths' before they'd even reached Year 5. That felt like something we could actually change."*
How XTables Champions Approaches This
XTables Champions was designed from the ground up for exactly this situation. The platform wraps times-tables practice inside games that children already want to play, including multiplayer formats, which means children are practising without feeling like they're practising. That matters a lot for children who've developed avoidance behaviours around maths.
The SEND-friendly design isn't an afterthought either. We've thought carefully about how the interface works for children with different cognitive and sensory profiles, keeping things clear, uncluttered, and low-pressure. The multiplayer element also shifts the social dynamic: instead of maths feeling like a solo performance under adult scrutiny, it becomes something children do alongside their peers, which for many anxious children changes the emotional experience completely.
This isn't a magic fix, and I'd never claim otherwise. But consistent, enjoyable practice over the months between now and June 2026 genuinely moves the needle. The children who will be most ready for the MTC are the ones who've been practising regularly, in a format that doesn't make them want to hide under the table.
A Practical Timeline for Parents and Teachers
If you're a parent or a teacher planning ahead, here's how I'd think about the year:
September to December 2025 is the time to build the habit, not the pressure. Make practice part of a routine, keep sessions short, and focus on the times tables your child finds least threatening first. Build confidence before tackling the tricky ones.
January to March 2026 is when you can start to introduce slightly more structured practice, gradually increasing the variety of tables. By this point, regular game-based practice should mean children are encountering most of their times tables hundreds of times without it feeling like drilling.
April to May 2026 is when it's worth introducing timed elements gently, so children aren't meeting the MTC format for the very first time in the actual check. But even here, keep it low-key. The goal is familiarity, not simulation of the worst-case scenario.
For SEND pupils specifically: if your child has access arrangements confirmed, practise in those conditions too. Familiarity with the adjusted format will help enormously.
Talk to Us About Supporting Your School or Child
If you're a SENCO, a Year 4 teacher, or a parent of a child who struggles with maths anxiety, and you're looking for a genuinely SEND-friendly way to help them prepare for the 2026 MTC, I'd love you to explore what XTables Champions offers.
You can visit xtableschampions.com to learn more, or get in touch directly to talk about how the platform works and whether it's a good fit for your pupils or your child. We're a small, founder-led team and we're genuinely happy to have that conversation, no pressure, no hard sell.
The MTC window opens on 1 June 2026. There's real time to make a difference between now and then, but only if the practice is the kind children will actually do.