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Two ways to start. Recap the skill today’s lesson depends on, or retrieve what is starting to fade.
How we use the starter in a maths lesson will nearly always determine the level of success and achievement that follows. Students may have just come in from rain, wind or snow. If it was lunch, they may have eaten nothing but sugary snacks, or nothing at all. They may have come from PE or from an exam. The room still has to start with purpose.
Bearing that in mind, it is a minor miracle we teachers expect an engaging start. The fact the kids live up to it, and often exceed it, is no less of a feat. I still begin every lesson with a short, independent task, because those first minutes decide whether the main phase has anywhere to sit.
Every lesson on the site offers two kinds of start. One recaps the prerequisite the main phase is about to lean on. The other retrieves knowledge that is beginning to fade. Which I use depends far more on the class in front of me than on the topic on the board.
Barak Rosenshine placed a short daily review at the very top of his Principles of Instruction. The most effective teachers he studied began lessons by going back over recent learning, typically for five to eight minutes, before anything new was introduced.
The reason is about memory rather than routine. Working memory is small and easily overloaded. If the steps a new topic depends on are already fluent, students have room to think about the new idea instead of wrestling with the old one. If those steps are shaky, the new learning has nowhere to sit.
For me, the start of the lesson has to meet the following criteria.
Understanding what a student knows about a topic early on is key to success. If, while figuring this out, we can create a calm and purposeful room, we are on the right track. Creating an activity that does both is not always easy, which is why every lesson on the site offers two different kinds of start.
Every lesson pack opens with a starter slide. It is not a warm-up in the general sense. It deliberately recaps the prerequisite knowledge the lesson is about to lean on.
A lesson on adding fractions with different denominators begins with equivalent fractions. A lesson on solving quadratics by factorisation begins by matching expanded quadratics with their factorised form. A lesson on multiplying and dividing by powers of ten begins with reading the value of a digit from a place value table. A lesson on linear simultaneous equations begins by generating and solving a simple equation using the balance method.
When planning, I ask one narrow question. What do they need to be able to do already before we begin the main phase? The starter answers it, and it tells me who is ready and who is not while there is still time to do something about it.
This is where cognitive load theory earns its place in a maths department. Sweller’s work suggests that new learning fails not because students lack ability but because too much is being held in mind at once. Making the prerequisite fluent first is the cheapest way to reduce that load.
Every lesson pack includes a prerequisite starter. The daily retrieval library covers Years 7 to 11. School membership unlocks both for the whole department.
The second option is a retrieval task of four or five questions drawn from topics studied weeks or terms ago. They are not chosen for their link to today’s objective. They are chosen because that knowledge is starting to fade.
The evidence here is unusually clear. Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found that students who were tested on material remembered far more of it a week later than students who simply read it again, even though rereading felt more productive at the time. Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) reviewed ten popular study techniques and rated only two as high utility: practice testing and spreading practice out over time. A mixed retrieval starter is both of those at once.
One note of caution is worth adding. The Education Endowment Foundation’s 2021 review of cognitive science found retrieval and spacing well supported in laboratory studies, but only a few studies have tested them in ordinary classrooms, delivered by teachers over long periods. The review is clear that the principles do not dictate a particular format or timing. Keeping the questions short, frequent and low-stakes is a sensible reading of that.
Project a mixed set as students walk in. Number, Algebra, Geometry, Statistics and Proportion, none of them chosen because they match today’s title. Silent attempt first, then a short review from the answer slide.
Which one I use depends far more on the class in front of me than on the topic on the board.
If the lesson is straight after lunch and students need longer to settle, the retrieval task usually wins. Each question stands alone, so a student who arrives three minutes late can still start and still succeed. If the topic is one I know the class will find difficult, the lesson pack starter wins, because the prerequisite has to be secure before we go anywhere near the new idea.
The two options above cover most lessons, but they are not the only ways to begin.
Maths Challenge questions, from the primary papers through to the senior ones, are excellent open problems. They are short, use very few words and rarely signal a method, so students have to decide what the question is really asking. Put them on the board for pairs and the room fills with mathematical talk within a minute.
Exam questions taken directly from a past paper carry a motivational weight that a textbook exercise does not. Students treat a real question from a real paper seriously, and it gives an honest picture of where the class stands.
Marking an incorrect exam answer against the mark scheme is my favourite start for an exam class. Students are given a worked solution containing errors and asked to award the marks. Booth and colleagues (2013) found that students who studied and explained incorrect worked examples in algebra developed stronger conceptual understanding than those who saw correct examples only. Marking an answer takes that finding and wraps an exam skill around it, since students have to read a mark scheme, find where credit is earned and say why.
Questioning in the first ten minutes should help students recall what they already know and show me where to pitch the main phase. I use short, closed questions while they work, then ask someone to explain a correction once we review. For a fuller set of prompts from starter through to plenary, see Questioning in Mathematics Lessons.
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Write down the one thing students must already be able to do for the main phase to work. If you are not confident they have it, use the lesson pack starter and check it properly before moving on.
If the prerequisite is secure and recent, open with four or five questions from earlier in the year. They are there because that knowledge is starting to fade, not because they match today’s title.
Rather than have students line up outside the room, I welcome them in as they arrive. The task is already on the board, or on a slip of paper. There is no build-up outside the door. The lesson begins the moment they walk through it.
Somewhere between five and ten minutes in, once everyone has had time to make progress, we go through the answers. Feedback is what turns the starter from a filler into learning.
Say plainly how today’s objective builds on the skill we have just used. Students should be able to feel the join between the first ten minutes and the rest of the lesson.
More able: keep the independent start, raise the demand. Use a Maths Challenge question in pairs, or a mark-scheme task on an incorrect exam answer. Ask them to say where the marks are earned, not only whether the final line is right.
Less able: keep the independent start, reduce the load. Use the lesson pack starter on the exact prerequisite. Aim for early success on the first question, then use the review to name one misconception before the new idea begins.
| Situation | Starter I choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| New topic leaning heavily on one prior skill | Lesson pack slide | Frees working memory for the new idea |
| Straight after lunch or PE, unsettled arrival | Mixed retrieval task | Independent questions, easy to join late |
| Prerequisite already secure and recent | Mixed retrieval task | Protects older knowledge from fading |
| Exam class in the weeks before a paper | Exam question or mark scheme task | Builds technique and raises the stakes |
| Tired class, last lesson of the week | Maths Challenge question in pairs | Talk and reasoning without heavy notation |
Use this before you plan your next lesson.
Every lesson pack includes a prerequisite starter. The Year 7 to 11 retrieval library sits alongside it. Teacher membership is £49.95 a year. School membership is £395 a year for every maths teacher at one site.
No. Recap the knowledge today’s lesson depends on, or retrieve knowledge that is beginning to fade. Yesterday may already be secure. Older topics are often the ones that need protecting.
Use the lesson pack slide when the new idea leans heavily on one prior skill. Use mixed retrieval when that skill is already secure, or when the class needs longer to settle after lunch or PE.
Five to eight minutes of independent work, then a short review, is the pattern Rosenshine described. I usually take five to ten minutes in total, long enough for latecomers, short enough that the main phase still has the hour.
Keep the task independent and make each question stand alone. A student who arrives three minutes late can still start and still succeed. Do not wait in the corridor until everyone is there.
No. Name the misconception, ask a student to explain the correction, then say how today’s objective builds on that skill. Feedback should answer where they are going, how they are going, and where to next.
The daily retrieval library has a free sample. Full lesson packs, with the prerequisite starter already written, sit behind Teacher membership at £49.95 a year, or School membership at £395 a year for all maths teachers at one site.
Before you plan your next lesson, write down the one thing students must already be able to do. If you are confident the class has it, open with four or five retrieval questions from earlier in the year. If you are not, use the lesson pack starter and check it properly before moving on.
A Mr Mathematics membership gives you 1000+ ready-to-teach lessons, each with a starter that recaps the prerequisite, plus differentiated worksheets and video tutorials from Year 7 to Further Maths.
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