Teaching Year 2 to reason about maths: a large trial finds a gain, bigger for FSM pupils

The study. This was an Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) effectiveness trial of Mathematical Reasoning, a 12 to 15 week Year 2 programme developed by the University of Oxford, with teachers trained online. NFER evaluated it in 238 schools with 6,291 pupils. (EEF release)

What it found.

Pupils made one month's additional progress in maths on average.
Pupils eligible for free school meals made two months' additional progress.
The EEF rates the security of this finding as high.

How much weight to put on it. It was tested at scale with online training, which is the way most schools would actually run it. The effect is modest. "Months' progress" is the EEF's way of translating the effect size into a figure, not a direct measure of time. Read the full report on the EEF project page before you commit.

Commentary. For a KS1 team looking at how to close the disadvantage gap, this is one of the stronger recent options. It's short, it's backed by a high-security trial, and the gain is bigger for the pupils the white paper's gap target is about (DfE white paper).

Evidence: the trial results above. Commentary: the last paragraph is Edroom's view.