4.1Open your school’s account

1. Go to halomath.net/schools and choose Try it free for four weeks.
2. Under Find your school, type your school’s name, town or postcode and choose it from the list. If it isn’t listed, choose My school isn’t listed and type the name.
3. Fill in your name, your school email address and your role, choose a password, tick to agree to the terms and data processing agreement, and choose Start the free trial.
4. You go straight into the school admin area as your school’s Halomath admin.
5. We also email you a link to confirm your email address. Until you open it, you can add your classes, but you can’t add staff or pupils, or subscribe. If it isn’t confirmed within 7 days, the account is removed.

The free trial lasts four weeks, includes everything in the Plus plan, and needs no payment details. Until the setup is done, the Overview page shows Getting started: the four steps below, each ticked off as you finish it.

4.2Add your classes

1. Open Classes and use Add a class.
2. Give the class the same name as in your management information system (MIS), for example 4S, choose its year group, and choose who teaches it. A class can have more than one teacher.
3. Choose Add class. Add every class before you import pupils, because each pupil joins a class.

You can add teachers to a class later, once you have added them as staff (4.3).

4.3Add your staff

1. Open Staff. Under Add a member of staff, enter their name and school email address.
2. Choose their role: Teacher sees only their own classes; School admin manages the whole school.
3. Choose their classes and select Send set-password email. They get an email from Halomath with a link to choose their password. The link works for seven days.

If someone can’t find the email, ask them to check their junk folder, then use Resend email next to their name.

4.4Import your pupils

1. Export a pupil list from your MIS (for example SIMS or Arbor) or use a spreadsheet. It needs a column for first name, surname and class. It can also include known as, gender and pupil ID (such as the admission number).
2. Open Pupils, choose Import roster, then Paste the rows or Upload CSV.
3. Check the preview. Halomath matches the class names to your classes and points out anything it can’t read, then adds the pupils when you confirm.

Pupils don’t need email addresses or passwords. We don’t ask for dates of birth, addresses or contact details.

4.5Print the login cards

1. On Pupils, choose Print login cards and pick a class. Teachers can do the same from their class’s Login cards tab.
2. Choose Print cards for pupils who don’t have one yet, and print on A4. The first page has short instructions for the class teacher.
3. Each pupil gets two cards: a school card that stays in class and a home card that goes home, with a line telling parents what it is.

5.1Once on each class device

On each class iPad or Chromebook, open halomath.net/card, add it to the home screen and allow the camera when asked.

5.2Each time a pupil signs in

1. The pupil opens Halomath and holds their card up to the camera. If the device has no camera, they type the code printed under the QR code.
2. When the next pupil takes over the device, tap Switch so they can sign in.

5.3Lost or forgotten cards

• Card lost: choose Reprint card next to the pupil’s name. Their old school and home cards stop working, and they are signed out on every device.
• Card left at home today: choose Show code. The pupil scans or types the code on screen. It works once, in the next 10 minutes, and their cards keep working.

5.4At home

With the home card, a pupil can sign in at halomath.net/card on a family computer or tablet and do the same Mental Maths rounds.

7.1This week

Who has practised this week: rounds, minutes (under a minute shows as <1) and when each pupil last practised. Pupils who haven’t practised yet this week are marked Not this week. Use Show earlier weeks to look back.

Until the class has done its first round, this tab shows Before the first lesson with three things to do, and a dash instead of Not this week.

7.2How they’re doing

Accuracy over each pupil’s last 10 questions on each learning objective. Secure is 80% or more; 60–79% and under 60% are shown in their own colours, and a dash means fewer than 5 questions so far. Choose a learning objective to see each step in it, or a pupil to see all their learning objectives.

7.3This term· Plus plan

How the class and each pupil have moved on this term. For each learning objective you see class accuracy at the start of term and now, how many pupils are secure, and how many are still under 60%. Below that, each pupil’s weeks practised, accuracy and time per question, start and now. Choose a pupil to see each of their learning objectives.

• Start is the first three weeks a pupil practised this term, and now is the latest three. A dash means fewer than 10 questions.
• Print pupil reports prints one side of A4 for each pupil, for parents’ evening: how much they practised, what is secure and what to keep practising. It doesn’t compare pupils with each other.
• Download CSV gives each pupil’s accuracy at the start of term and now, for each learning objective.
• Terms follow the usual dates for schools in England. A school admin can choose Change term dates to match your school’s own terms. You can also look back at last term.

School admins also see a line for every class under This term on the school Overview.

7.4What’s been taught

Tick each step once you’ve taught it, and pupils in the class will start getting it in their Mental Maths rounds. Everything from the year before is already included, so there’s nothing to set up before the first lesson. Tick all ticks a whole group, and Untick all clears it. Changes apply from each pupil’s next round.

To see every year’s learning objectives and steps, go to What Mental Maths covers.

7.5Set practice· Plus plan

1. Choose the steps to practise, who it is for (the whole class or selected pupils) and the dates.
2. Select Set practice. While it is set, every round those pupils start, in class or at home, uses only these steps.
3. See the results as pupils practise. You can End now or Extend at any time. Steps you set are also ticked as taught.

7.6Login cards

Print, reprint or show a sign-in code for pupils in this class, as in 4.5 and 5.3.

7.7Settings

Show the timer: when the timer is off, pupils in the class don’t see the countdown, and rounds still end after 10 minutes.

Let pupils choose a year: when this is on, pupils in the class can pick a year on their Mental Maths card and practise every step in it, including steps not yet ticked as taught. It stays off unless you turn it on.

7.8Print a paper round

For pupils who practise on paper as well as, or instead of, on screen. On This week, choose Print a paper round above the table, then the whole class or selected pupils. School admins can print one from the Pupils page too.

• Everyone gets the same 20 questions, from the same steps as their rounds on screen, carrying on from the last paper round.
• Each pupil sheet is one side of A4 with a box for each answer. Print pupil sheets on one side of the paper.
• The answer sheet shows each answer and how Nico works it out. Print it double-sided, one for each pupil or one for each table, so pupils can mark their own.
• The QR code on the answer sheet opens Nico’s walkthroughs for that sheet, so families can watch them at home.

Answers on paper don’t come back to Halomath. When a pupil hands in a sheet, tick them in the Paper column on This week: it counts as practice that week, but doesn’t go into How they’re doing.

10.1Plans

One price for the whole school, not per pupil. No VAT is charged.

10.2Subscribing

1. Choose Subscribe, pick a plan, and enter the school’s address and the email address of your finance team. Add a purchase order number if your school uses them.
2. Tick to agree to the terms and data processing agreement. We send the invoice to your finance team straight away, and your subscription runs for 12 months. If you subscribe during the trial, it starts when the trial ends.
3. Your finance team can pay by card or UK bank transfer from the invoice page. Pupils keep practising while it is paid: the invoice is due within 30 days.

You can move from Standard to Plus during a subscription with Upgrade to Plus; we invoice the difference for the whole months left, and Plus starts straight away.

10.3If an invoice isn’t paid

We email the school admin the day after the due date, and again a week before pupils’ practice would pause. If an invoice is still unpaid 30 days after its due date, pupils can’t start Mental Maths until it is paid. Staff can still sign in, and nothing is deleted.

10.4Renewal

Subscriptions renew each year. About six weeks before the end, we email the school admin with the renewal price; we send the renewal invoice 30 days before the end. To change anything or stop renewing, just reply to that email.