Tailored one-to-one tuition has helped children who struggle with basic maths to perform beyond their years in numeracy and will now be extended to tens of thousands of pupils.

The results of the first year of early intervention programmes, published today, show that the weakest seven-year-olds benefit the most catching up with and outshining their peers in just 12 weeks.

More of those falling behind in the second year of primary school will now be helped after the scheme received Government backing and funding. It will be rolled out to 30,000 children by 2010.

The project - Numbers Count - concentrates on teaching maths in ways which suit the individual child but the results indicate that girls and boys gain equally.

The 2,621 pupils who took part in the pilot were way below the level required of their year group when they started but after 12 weeks’ intensive maths tutoring 72 per cent reached or broke through the standard.

They made over a year’s progress on average in just 20 hours of teaching over three months.

Schools in the project improved marks in maths for all seven-year-olds by three percentage points. Those schools without trained Numbers Count teachers fell behind by one percentage point.

Researchers from Edge Hill University also found the programme impacted parents whose mathematical skills improved during the scheme.

Seven million adults struggle to complete basic sums meant for nine-year-olds.

Jean Gross, director of the Every Child a Chance programme which runs the scheme, said its strength was in the detailed assessment of every child and activities chosen to match their interests.

“I was delighted that the lowest achieving children initially made the biggest progress,” she said.

“These are the children that get written off in our system because people think they can’t learn. What we have shown is with a specialist teacher and the right programme they can learn.”

The project which will be taken up in 2,000 schools over the next two years has the potential to “wipe out a lot of what we think of a special needs,” Ms Gross added.

It aims to rescue children from sliding into a “can’t do attidude” to numbers identified by Sir Peter Williams in his review of primary school maths earlier this year.

Tuition is suited to fit the pupil’s personality. Those who enjoy sport or being active are taught to count in jumping games or outside bouncing a ball.

Quiet children learn about multiples through arranging numbered tea cups or by talking to a puppet about times tables and correcting its mistakes.

Vernon Coaker, Schools Minister, said numeracy could not be an optional extra but is part of everyday life.

“It is vital children understand and are confident using basic maths concepts at a young age,” he said.

“It’s time to break the cycle of poor numeracy skills being passed on from generation to generation.

Children continued to advance at a faster rate than normal even once they had finished the intensive course of 30-minute lessons. “Six months after the lessons ended...they had made over seven months progress,” researchers said.

Children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) - a measure of social deprivation - did not improve as much as their peers from better off backgrounds however, gaining only 12.9 months in number age compared to 13.8 months for those not on FSM.

Pupils with English as a second language made greater gains in terms of number age than those with English as their mother tongue. White children made the worst progress through the scheme with Bangladeshi pupils the most improved.

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