Essential Mental Arithmetic
Close the Key Stage 3 maths gap with targeted maths intervention books based on the best-selling Mental Arithmetic series.
Many students arrive at secondary school without secure foundational maths skills from Key Stage 2. Essential Mental Arithmetic helps you identify gaps in understanding and deliver targeted, individualised intervention that gets students up to speed quickly.
This new edition of the bestselling Mental Arithmetic series comprises six graded workbooks, each featuring over 900 differentiated questions covering essential mental maths skills from the primary curriculum.
Organised by ability rather than age, Essential Mental Arithmetic helps you identify gaps in understanding and deliver targeted, individualised intervention for each student.
1. Assess: Use the free Entry Tests to identify where each student should start. The first three books are suitable for students working at a lower Key Stage 2 level, while books 4-6 are designed for students working at an upper Key Stage 2 level.
2. Practice: Schedule 10–20 minutes of daily practice, either as part of maths lessons or as homework.
3. Track progress: Regular testing allows you to monitor improvement and quickly identify areas that need additional support.
The pedagogy behind Essential Mental Arithmetic was developed by experts who recognised that effective maths fluency requires more than repetition. Using principles rooted in variation theory and intelligent practice, the series features a unique ‘A, B, C’ format that encourages students to think mathematically and make connections between different question types.
This approach delivers fast, focused intervention on core Key Stage 2 skills. The carefully graded tests ensure that every student is appropriately challenged, building the skills and confidence needed for the Key Stage 3 curriculum.
The series features six graded workbooks designed to close the foundational knowledge gap for students starting Key Stage 3. Each book is available for only £3.50 when bought as a class set (10 copies or more).
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Mental Arithmetic is Schofield & Sims' primary series, designed for Key Stages 1 and 2. Essential Mental Arithmetic is the secondary series, designed to bridge the gap between KS2 arithmetic and the demands of KS3 mathematics. Since both series are aimed at improving arithmetic and number skills at Key Stage 2 level, they share the same questions, so using both series consecutively is not recommended.
The pupil books themselves provide a cumulative record of each student's work. Regular weekly use, combined with the group marking model, where students mark their own answers as the class works through each question together, creates frequent low-stakes assessment without additional marking load for the teacher. This also gives students the opportunity to hear different methods for reaching the same answer, which supports wider mathematical reasoning.
Because the series is graded by difficulty rather than year group, students in the same class can work from different books simultaneously. The consistent format across all six books means managing multiple levels in one classroom is straightforward in practice. Each student works at the level that reflects their current attainment, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach that leaves some students lost and others unchallenged.
Yes. While the lesson starter model is the most widely used, the books work well for homework, individual study and targeted intervention. Because the format is consistent and self-explanatory, students can work independently without needing additional instruction. Essential Mental Arithmetic is also well suited to small group withdrawal sessions, where students working on the same book can move through questions at their own pace.
The most common approach is a short starter activity at the beginning of a lesson, typically 10 to 20 minutes. The self-contained format means students work through questions independently, and answers can be reviewed quickly as a class. Sessions require minimal preparation. The brevity is intentional: regular, focused practice is more effective for building arithmetic fluency than occasional extended sessions.
The series includes two free entry tests — Entry Test A and Entry Test B — designed to help you place students in the right book from the start. Entry Test A is suitable for students working at the lower end of Key Stage 2 and Entry Test B is suitable for those at the upper end. Both tests are untimed and typically take up to an hour to complete. Each test maps scores directly to a recommended starting book, so placement is straightforward even at the beginning of Year 7 when you may not yet have reliable information about individual students' current attainment.
The series consists of six graded books. Each book is divided into three sections, each containing twelve one-page tests, one for each week of term. The tests become progressively more challenging within each book and across the series as a whole.
Each test is divided into three parts. Part A focuses on number and symbol recognition, with minimal use of language. Part B introduces mathematical language and terminology. Part C presents written questions involving one- or two-step problem solving. This progression within each test means that every session covers a range of difficulty, giving you a clear picture of where each student is confident and where gaps remain.
A student who cannot work fluently with numbers has less working memory available for the higher-level reasoning that secondary maths demands. Mental arithmetic fluency is not a skill students either have or do not have when they arrive in Year 7. It requires continued, deliberate practice to maintain and develop. Many secondary departments find that students arrive with significant gaps in this area and that those gaps, if unaddressed, compound as the curriculum becomes more demanding.
Essential Mental Arithmetic is a structured, graded series from Schofield & Sims designed for use in secondary schools, primarily with Key Stage 3 students. It provides progressive practice in the core arithmetic and number skills that students need across all areas of secondary mathematics. The series is most commonly used in Years 7 and 8, though schools use it more or less widely depending on the ability profile of their students.
Request your free evaluation pack today and receive all six books from the series to review at your school.
