Dubai KHDA Inclusion & EdTech | Times Tables Software

Every June, Year 4 pupils across England sit the MTC, a 25-question online check with a strict 6-second response window per question. For most children, that is fine. For children with ADHD, dyscalculia, dyslexia, processing difficulties or maths anxiety, that 6-second timer is not a neutral design choice. It is actively hostile.

Right now, senior leaders and SENCOs are reviewing preliminary results and having difficult conversations. When I looked into what teachers and SENCOs were saying in the weeks following this year's check, a clear pattern emerged: the students who had made genuine progress in their multiplication knowledge during the year were still scoring poorly, because the timed pressure triggered anxiety responses that wiped out recall. That is a significant problem, and it is not one you can fix with more worksheets or more practice tests in the same format.

Here is what the research on maths anxiety tells us, and what I keep seeing reflected in conversations with educators. When a child feels threatened by a timed test, the brain's threat-response system kicks in. Working memory, which is exactly what you need to retrieve a multiplication fact quickly, gets hijacked. The child knows 7 x 8. They have answered it correctly dozens of times. But under a 6-second timer, with the weight of a formal check bearing down on them, that knowledge becomes inaccessible.

For neurodivergent children, this is compounded further. A child with ADHD may hyperfocus on the timer rather than the question. A child with dyscalculia may already be carrying significant anxiety about numbers before they even sit down. A child with slow processing speed is structurally disadvantaged by a format that rewards fast retrieval above all else.

The MTC does not measure what a SEND student knows. It measures how well they perform under conditions specifically designed to be stressful.

This is not a criticism of the DfE policy in isolation. But it does mean schools have a responsibility to prepare SEND students in ways that go beyond drilling the same timed questions over and over.

The instinct when children score poorly on a timed test is often to do more timed tests. I completely understand why. It feels logical. But for a child who is already anxious about maths, repeated exposure to the same high-pressure format does not build resilience. It builds dread.

Times-tables worksheets, flashcard drills and repetitive online quizzes with countdown timers all carry the same problem: they signal to the child that speed is what matters, that failure is measurable, and that maths is something to survive rather than something to enjoy. For a neurodivergent child who has already internalised the idea that they are bad at maths, every failed drill is confirmation of that belief.

What actually breaks the cycle is changing the emotional context entirely.

This is where the approach we take at XTables Champions comes from. When children practise multiplication through games they already love, with multiplayer formats that feel social and fun rather than competitive and judged, something genuinely different happens. The emotional stakes change. A child who gets a question wrong in a game is not failing a test. They are playing. They try again.

Multiplayer specifically matters for SEND students in a few important ways. First, it distributes attention. In a solo drill, the entire focus is on the child's own performance and their own anxiety. In a multiplayer game, attention is naturally shared across the experience, the other players, the game itself, the goal. This reduces the cognitive load of self-monitoring, which is often exhausting for neurodivergent children.

Second, the social element reframes maths as something you do with other people, not something you are tested on alone. From the schools we have spoken with in our early conversations, the children who engage most with multiplayer maths games are often the same children who disengage completely from solo practice. That is not a coincidence.

As our founder Gal Darrash puts it, "We built this for the kids who put their head down when the worksheet comes out. If the format is the problem, you have to change the format."

If you are reviewing this year's MTC results and thinking about your intervention plan for next year's Year 4 cohort, here are the questions I would be asking.

First, look at which of your lower-scoring pupils also show signs of maths anxiety more broadly. Not just on the MTC, but in everyday classroom maths. Are they avoidant? Do they shut down when asked to answer quickly? That tells you something different from a student who simply has not had enough exposure to their tables.

Second, think about what their current practice looks like at home and in school. If the answer is timed worksheets and solo apps with countdowns, that is worth reconsidering. The goal between now and next June is not more of the same. It is building genuine fluency through repeated, low-anxiety exposure.

Third, consider the role of the SENCO in shaping how multiplication is practised, not just assessed. The MTC accommodations available from the DfE (additional time, for example) help on the day, but the real work happens in the months before.

At XTables Champions, we are a young company and we are honest about that. We are not claiming to have all the answers or a decade of large-scale data. What we do have is software built specifically for children who struggle with maths anxiety and neurodivergent needs, designed around the principle that engagement and emotional safety come before speed.

If you are a SENCO, Year 4 teacher or senior leader who has just reviewed your MTC results and is wondering what to do differently for your SEND pupils next year, we would genuinely love to hear from you. Not to pitch. To listen, and to talk through what your children actually need.

Visit xtableschampions.com and get in touch. Tell us about your school and your students. That conversation is where everything starts.