Sumdog partnership adds up for Glasgow primary schools

A partnership between Scotland's largest local authority and an Edinburgh-based social enterprise is aiming to improve primary pupils' proficiency in maths via a globally popular educational game.

Sumdog has agreed to grant Glasgow City Council premium access to its online game-based learning system, which has been carefully aligned to the national Curriculum for Excellence.

All P3, P4 and P7 pupils at the 139 primary schools across the city will have access to the Sumdog programme, which is used by 2.8 million children in 88 countries.

A recent study carried out between December 2015 and June 2016 found that Glasgow primary school pupils who spent an average of one hour per week using Sumdog progressed three times faster than those who used the website and apps very little or not at all.

A specific focus for the 
partnership will be to raise attainment amongst Glasgow pupils from the most deprived backgrounds and to close the educational attainment gap.

The majority of pupils taking part in the recent Glasgow schools study, which demonstrated the effectiveness of Sumdog in improving attainment in maths and numeracy, attended schools in areas of high deprivation, as measured on the 2012 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Bailie Liz Cameron, executive member for children and lifelong learning at Glasgow City Council, said: “We were genuinely impressed by the results of the recent study of the use of Sumdog in Glasgow Council schools – particularly since a majority of pupils taking part were from schools located in areas of high 
deprivation.

“It’s great to see how enthusiastic pupils are about learning using Sumdog.

“We look forward to that enthusiasm continuing to grow as Sumdog gets rolled out across the city.”