Practice is pitched at the class, not the child
A worksheet is too easy for a third of the room and too hard for another third. The child who is behind practises failing; the child who is ahead practises boredom.
Numeracy practice · K–12 · Australia
Maths practice that won’t give you the answer.
Twenty minutes a day at your child’s own frontier. Workings pitches every question so it’s hard enough to learn from and never so hard it hurts — and when they’re stuck, it helps them take the last step themselves.
Coming soonSee the science
Launching soon · A$20 per child per month · 14-day free trial
Hi Jarrah! Good to see you.
Here’s one about footy cards.
Jarrah had 72 footy cards. She gave 45 of them to her cousin. How many cards does Jarrah have left?
33Not quite — have another go
You said 33. Have a look at the ones column with me. What is 2 take away 5?
- Majority First Nations ownedMost of Workings is owned by First Nations people.
- Built on the Australian syllabusKindergarten to Year 12, strand by strand.
- Every answer computedWorked out by code, never guessed by AI.
- Children’s data held in SydneyStored in Australia. No child’s name or identifier goes to AI.
- No timers. No leaderboards.Nothing to race, nobody to lose to.
The problem
Every maths test is partly an English test.
Most practice treats a wrong answer as a maths problem. Often it isn’t. Three things go wrong in almost every classroom and kitchen table.
Reading masquerades as maths
A child who can subtract but can’t untangle “how many more does Jarrah have than Ella?” looks exactly like a child who can’t subtract — so they get more subtraction.
Growth is lockstep
Master Year 3 multiplication but not Year 3 fractions, and you’re held at Year 3 in everything, or pushed to Year 4 in everything. Neither fits the child.
The Workings answer
Hold the maths still. Move the reading.
Every question has a reading load, on a five-step scale, kept separate from its maths. A question stretches one or the other — never both at once. So when a child stops at level 4, Workings can tell it’s the sentence, not the subtraction, and send Bramble to unpack it.
- Two abilities tracked for every child: maths, and reading in maths.
- Read-aloud on any question, which never counts against a child.
- Parents see reading in maths as a strengths-framed trend, never a label.
The same maths, five reading loads
Reading level 1: No reading
72 − 45 = ?
Reading level 2: One plain idea
Jarrah had 72 cards. She gave away 45. How many are left?
Reading level 3: A short situation
Jarrah had 72 footy cards. She gave 45 of them to her cousin. How many cards does Jarrah have left?
Reading level 4: A situation with noise
Jarrah’s team has 18 players. She had 72 footy cards and gave 45 to her cousin. How many does she have now?
Reading level 5: Inference
Jarrah now has 45 fewer footy cards than at the start of the season, when she had 72. How many does she have?
What’s inside
Everything a good tutor does, without doing it for them.
Each part of the cast is a piece of the engine given a face. Here’s what they’re doing while your child works.
Never gives the answer
Stuck means scaffolding, never a reveal. The child takes the last step, every time.
Pitched at their frontier
Each question is chosen to land at a 70–85% chance of success: hard enough to learn from, not so hard it hurts.
Reading and maths, measured apart
Two abilities per child, so a reading snag is never mistaken for a maths gap — and each gets the right help.
Remembers what was learned
Mastered skills come back on a widening schedule, in new forms, so they stick instead of fading after the test.
A curriculum mapped by dependency
Every skill knows its prerequisites. Stall on fractions and practice steps back to the gap underneath, then returns.
Mistakes treated as clues
Wrong options are the errors children really make, so a wrong answer tells us which misconception to address.
Many ways to see a number
Hands-on blocks, pictures, bar models and number lines alongside number sentences, drawn precisely — never AI-drawn.
No clock, nothing to lose
No timers, no speed scores, no streaks that break. Recognition only ever adds up.
Questions about their world
Footy, horses, drawing, fishing — contexts from your child’s own interests, which never raise the reading load.
How it works
From sign-up to “that’s yours now”.
Sign up and set up
Start with a 14-day free trial when we launch. Your child picks their own avatar and the things they’re into.
Twenty minutes a day
Questions chosen for your child, at their frontier, in every strand. No clock on screen, and it always ends on a win.
Stuck? A smaller step
A question aimed at the mistake, help with the reading, or a step back to the skill underneath. Never the answer.
See it move
Your view shows growth by strand, against state and national benchmarks, with what’s coming back for review.
The science
Built on how brains actually learn.
The learning sciences boil down to a few mechanisms: attention, active engagement, error feedback and consolidation. Each one forces a design decision in Workings — and the ones that sound strange are usually the most important.
Attention
One stretch at a time
Working memory is small. A question pushes the maths or the reading, never both.
Active engagement
Never the answer
Generating an answer yourself is what builds memory. Being handed it closes the gap that was helping.
Error feedback
The child must sometimes be wrong
No discrepancy, no learning signal. A session with everything right is a failed session.
Consolidation
Sessions end, and skills return
Short daily practice, sleep in between, and spaced review in new forms.
Why it’s different
Built differently, on purpose.
Plenty of maths apps are fun. Workings is designed around a handful of rules that most practice tools don’t hold.
| Topic | Common in practice apps | Workings |
|---|---|---|
| When a child is stuck | The answer, or a worked solution | A smaller question. The child takes the last step |
| Difficulty | Set by year level or a fixed path | Set per child, per strand, at a 70–85% success band |
| A wrong word problem | Counted as a maths error | Attributed to reading or maths, and treated accordingly |
| Who checks the answer | Sometimes the same AI that wrote the question | Computed by code. AI writes words only |
| Time | Timers, speed rounds, countdowns | None. Speed is never used as evidence |
| Motivation | Streaks you can lose, leaderboards | Recognition that only adds up, tapering toward mastery |
| Repeats | The same question until it’s memorised | The identical question never twice; the maths returns in new forms |
Who it’s for
One engine. At home and at school.
For families
A straight answer to “how’s she going?”
- Growth first, then where your child sits against state and national benchmarks.
- Tell Workings how your child learns best, and it changes the questions.
- Help without needing to know the maths — and without a nightly battle.
- A learning record that follows your child to school.
Coming soonFor families →
For schools
The diagnosis you never have time to do.
- A class grid that names the prerequisite holding a group back.
- The misconceptions your class shows most — what to teach on Monday.
- Teacher and Aboriginal Education Officer views, with stall alerts.
- Parental consent, rostering and seats handled for you.
Meet the cast
Six faces, one rule: nobody hands over the answer.
Children don’t talk to a chatbot. They work with a small cast, each one a part of the engine with a personality.
Uncle
Welcome, goodbye and “nice try”
Opens and closes every session, and catches anyone fishing for the answer.
“Nice try! I’ll never just tell you — but I’ll help you get there.”
Pip
The numeracy guide
The main voice for the maths. Asks what you’ve already spotted before offering anything.
“Have another look. What do you already know about these numbers?”
Bramble
When the question makes no sense
Arrives when the reading, not the maths, is the snag, and pulls the question apart word by word.
“Before that — what is the question actually asking you to find?”
Kit
Mistakes as clues
Turns up when an answer matches a known misconception, and on spot-the-mistake questions.
“You said 33. Have a look at the ones column with me. What is 2 take away 5?”
Fig
Hands-on
Leads the hands-on questions: build a rough one with blocks or counters first.
“Grab the blocks. Build it first, then we’ll write it down.”
Marlow
The frontier
Appears when something is mastered and the next thing opens up.
“You’ve got Year 3 subtraction. That’s yours now.”
Pricing
Simple for families. Straightforward for schools.
Launching soon, with a 14-day free trial. No lock-in.
Families
Per child. Monthly or yearly.
A$20 / child / month
A$200 / child / year
Australian dollars, GST inclusive. Yearly works out to two months free.
- 14-day free trial when we launch. Nothing is charged until the trial ends.
- Cancel any time from your billing page.
- About 20 minutes of practice a day, with no clock on screen.
- Your child’s mastery by strand, against state and national benchmarks.
- Tips and interests that tailor your child’s questions.
Coming soon
Schools
Seat licences, per school year.
By enquiry
Priced for your school’s sector and seat count. Get in touch for a quote or a pilot.
- A seat is only taken once a family’s consent is recorded.
- Going over your seat count never locks a child out mid-term.
- Teacher, AEO and school administrator views.
- Rostering by CSV, class set-up and end-of-year rollover.
- Parental consent requests sent and tracked for you.
Questions
Good questions. Straight answers.
Will Workings ever just tell my child the answer?
No. Not in any mode, not after any number of tries. When a child is stuck, the cast scaffolds: a question aimed at the mistake, a hint, help with the reading, or a smaller question from the skill underneath. The child always takes the last step.
If they walk away, the question closes without the answer and its maths comes back another day in a new form.
Which year levels does it cover?
Workings is built for numeracy from Kindergarten to Year 12, on the Australian syllabus focus areas. Year levels are switched on as their questions are written and approved by our curriculum lead, so ask us which are live today. A child isn’t capped at their school year: they can be ahead in one strand and consolidating in another.
How long does practice take?
About 20 minutes a day, and a parent can set anywhere from 10 to 30. Your child never sees a clock, a countdown or a count of questions left. The session ends on a question they get right, with Uncle naming something specific they did.
Is there AI in Workings?
Yes, in a narrow and checked role. A language model helps draft question wording offline, into a bank that is checked by software and approved by a person before any child sees it. No model is called while a child waits for a question.
The AI writes words. It never decides what the right answer is: every answer is computed by code, and the answer never even reaches your child’s browser. A child’s name, email and school are never sent to a model.
What will I see as a parent?
Where your child is in each strand of numeracy and whether it is moving, against state and national benchmarks — growth first. You won’t see every question and answer: a child who knows each wrong answer is being watched practises differently.
How does the free trial work?
Every family starts with 14 days free. You add a card at sign-up and nothing is charged until the trial ends. Pricing is per child, monthly or yearly, and you can cancel any time from your billing page, which is handled on Stripe’s secure pages.
Can we use it at home and at school?
Yes, and it is one learning record. If your child’s school uses Workings, the school gives you a code to link your household, with your consent and the school’s approval. Practice at home counts at school and the reverse.
Where is my child’s data kept?
In Australia, in Sydney. We hold a child’s name, an email for sign-in, their year and their learning record — never photos, location or voice. Read our approach to privacy.
Does it suit neurodivergent children?
Workings is not a clinical product and doesn’t diagnose or treat anything. What we can say is narrower: the things most likely to derail a session — timers, speed scores, streaks you can lose, leaderboards and sudden jumps in difficulty — aren’t in it, by design rather than as settings.
Who is behind Workings?
Workings is majority First Nations owned. The curriculum — what depends on what, and when something counts as mastered — is owned by a mathematics teacher, and the architecture means nobody else can change what counts as a correct answer.
Start where your child is.
Fourteen days free. Twenty minutes a day. Every question pitched for your child, and the last step always theirs.
Coming soonTalk to us about your school