St John the Baptist Primary School, located in Belfast, serves a diverse and vibrant pupil community across Primary 1 to Primary 7. With a broad intake that includes 20% of students on the SEN Register and more than a third of students entitled to free school meals (well above the Northern Ireland average) the school is well‑known for its nurturing ethos and its strong focus on inclusive, high‑quality teaching.
Already experienced in using Star Reading to assess attainment and identify next steps, St John the Baptist Primary School also uses Accelerated Reader to develop fluent, confident, independent readers. The school has long recognised the value of aligned assessment and teaching across the curriculum. However, it was the introduction of Freckle by Renaissance for personalised Maths practice, supported by thorough initial training and ongoing guidance, that sparked one of the most significant shifts in teaching and learning the school has seen in recent years.
To understand this transformation, we spoke with the school’s Principal Chris Donnelly.
Key Outcomes
- 330,109 minutes of engaged Freckle Maths practice completed in 2024/25
- Significant improvement in PTM scores, with more students achieving Band 1 in the SEAG Transfer Test than in previous years
- Dramatic improvement in homework confidence, as reported widely by parents.
Making maths practice meaningful and accessible
Before implementing Freckle, staff at St John the Baptist Primary School had identified key challenges in pupil understanding using the Progress Test in Maths (PTM). Many of their Key Stage 2 learners struggled to interpret and break down word problems, often struggling to translate mathematical operations into real-life contexts. Chris tells us more.
“Our whole-school Progress Test assessments provided valuable insight into our students’ strengths and areas for development, identifying shape and space, as well as data handling, as priority focus areas. Addressing these gaps has become a key part of our school development plan, ensuring that students develop a deeper conceptual understanding alongside procedural fluency. This highlighted a need for explicit teaching strategies that bridge the gap between abstract concepts and practical application.”
Building mathematical confidence and resilience with Freckle
Renaissance’s Freckle quickly proved to be the platform the school had been searching for. Its adaptive structure and insightful feedback helped students break down complex problems into manageable steps – building confidence, resilience and genuine mastery.
“The use of Freckle has been pivotal in bridging the gap between abstract mathematical operations and their application in real-life contexts”
Chris explains. “It has enabled students to break down complex word problems into manageable steps, fostering both understanding and confidence. Through adaptive practice tailored to individual ability levels, Freckle has provided precise insights into each pupil’s learning journey, allowing us to identify misconceptions and address them promptly each morning through the detailed feedback received on each task.”
“This targeted, data-driven approach ensures that every learner receives personalised support, leading to measurable progress in key focus areas such as problem-solving, shape and space and data handling. By combining technology with effective teaching strategies, we’ve created a learning environment that promotes resilience, independence and mastery of essential mathematical skills for our learners.”
Embedding Freckle in the classroom
The programme was taken forward within the school under the direction of Nathan Hicks, a Key Stage 2 teacher and Freckle coordinator. “Teachers were at first apprehensive with having to get to grips with a new tool, but after a few training sessions we developed a clear and coherent plan for using Freckle,” explains Nathan. “This gave our teachers the confidence to use Freckle and their skills have developed greatly as they continue to use it.”
In the classroom, teachers are using Freckle to complement direct teaching and learning as well as providing opportunities for personalised practice. Nathan expands:
“Students complete exercises on Freckle that are aligned with the topic being taught, ensuring reinforcement of new concepts. Freckle delivers immediate feedback on student responses which allows students to ask for help the first time they get something wrong, allowing us to address misconceptions immediately.”
“Teachers can use the feedback data to monitor progress, identify focus areas and inform their future planning. This approach fosters an interactive learning environment where students are actively engaged and teachers reinforce classroom learning and promote retention.”
Targeted practice for current and prior learning
The school has also implemented a structured homework routine using Freckle. “Students complete a daily fact practice, building fluency in foundational skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Our Key Stage 2 students also explore fractions” Nathan explains. “Then we ask them to do their target practices. One practice focuses on the concept being taught during the current week, reinforcing new learning. The second practice revisits a concept from a previous week, consolidating understanding and supporting long-term mastery.
“This dual approach ensures that students strengthen both new and previously learned skills, reducing learning gaps and promoting cumulative knowledge.”
Strengthening planning with Star Maths and Freckle
Alongside Freckle, the school has been using Renaissance’s Star Maths since 2017. Star Maths offers quick, standardised assessments that identify each pupil’s current attainment and specific strengths or gaps, helping teachers plan next steps based on clear evidence.
Chris continues, “By using Star Maths and Freckle together our teachers have reliable assessment data and personalised learning insights to directly inform teaching and learning. The assessment results from Star Maths link directly with Freckle, ensuring each child is placed at the correct level for targeted practice and can continue developing at their level.”
“This allows our lower attaining students to bridge any gaps in learning as well as allowing our higher attaining students to explore more challenging elements at their own pace. This supports teachers in identifying where to focus whole-class teaching, intervention, or extension activities, making planning more efficient and responsive to students’ needs.”
Transforming maths homework into stress-free practice
“Parents have commented on how Freckle has transformed homework time in their household. Before using Freckle, maths homework often led to frustration and tears because their child didn’t know if they were doing the problems correctly. Because it’s based on the topics we’re covering in school, using Freckle at home means that the students are doing their homework with more confidence and understanding. The ‘Teach me’ aspect of target practice means that students can get step-by-step support on aspects of numeracy that they are unclear of.
Nathan explains how the students have responded to the programme: “Students have said they find the interface is much friendlier than previous programmes we have used, and the class coin leaderboard upon logging in means students can have a healthy competitive nature. Students especially love the avatar and being able to show off their items to friends. One pupil in my class saved up his coins since Primary 6 to be able to buy the covenant ‘cowboy hat’ and he felt a great sense of achievement in working towards and achieving his goal.”
Homework in Freckle feeds directly back into classroom learning. By reviewing Freckle reports each morning, teachers identify which questions students found most challenging at home. These insights shape morning starter activities, allowing staff to revisit specific questions, clarify misunderstandings and reinforce learning straight away. As a result, homework is embedded within the school’s Assessment for Learning cycle, rather than sitting apart from classroom teaching.
Motivating students through Freckle achievements
St John the Baptist Primary School has established a whole‑school approach to celebrating Freckle success. Chris explains “To motivate and recognise our students’ efforts, we celebrate success on Freckle through a weekly reward system.”
Each week, classes award a certificate for most questions answered and a certificate for highest accuracy.
“Our certificate winners earn the opportunity to attempt unlocking a Lockabox containing a voucher. This adds an element of excitement and gamification, encouraging consistent participation and effort. This celebration strategy not only rewards hard work and accuracy but also fosters a positive, competitive spirit that motivates students to engage with Freckle regularly.”
Increased engagement and stronger achievement
The school’s consistency and commitment have produced measurable results. Chris tells us more:
“Freckle use across the school is increasing each year, with each students average time on the platform up by 100 minutes this year. That’s over 330,109 minutes of maths practice completed across our school in the last academic year, an increase from 294,000 minutes the year before.”
It’s not just Maths engagement that’s up, the schools results from PTM have also improved. “Our 2024/25 cohort performed better in Maths than English, this is the opposite of what we saw in the previous year before implementing Freckle.”
Teachers are now sharing best practice across year groups to expand the approach into future cohorts.
Looking ahead: extending Freckle from practice to assessment
With a refined whole‑school strategy, ongoing staff development and a commitment to consistent, meaningful use, the school plans to deepen its use of Freckle going forward. Monitoring will now be coordinated at curricular‑team level, supported by incentives and rewards that keep engagement high.
As part of this next phase, the school plans to extend the use of Freckle into termly assessments, using the platform to create differentiated assessments aligned to curriculum content. These are marked automatically, with key questions or concepts misunderstood by students immediately flagged, providing timely, actionable insights while significantly reducing workload. Following targeted re-teaching, teachers can reassign a parallel assessment to measure impact, with Freckle’s Assessment Growth Report showing progress and any regression, as well as areas of secure understanding.
For the leadership team, the message is clear: Freckle has not only strengthened numeracy outcomes but transformed the school’s culture around Maths – building confidence, independence and enthusiasm in learners of all abilities.
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