For grown-ups
A guide for parents and carers
How Mathfinch works, where progress is kept, and how to get the most from it.
- Getting started
- Where progress is kept
- Moving between devices
- The grown-ups area
- About the lessons
- Making it easier to use
Getting started
- Open the app in your web browser.
- Add a learner: choose a nickname (not a real name is needed) and their school year.
- For primary years, a short starting check suggests where to begin. Or pick any lesson yourself.
- Up to 8 learners can share one device, each with their own progress.
On a phone or tablet you can add it to your home screen from the browser’s Share or menu button. It then opens like an app and keeps working offline.
Where progress is kept
Progress is saved in the browser on the device you’re using. We don’t receive it and there is no account, so:
- progress in one browser doesn’t appear in another browser or on another device;
- clearing the browser’s data for mathfinch.com, or using a private window, removes it;
- progress in the website and in the phone apps is kept separately.
To keep a backup, save a progress file from the grown-ups area now and then.
Moving between devices
In the grown-ups area, choose Save a progress file. On the other device, open Mathfinch, go to the grown-ups area and load that file. This works between browsers and, once they’re out, the iPhone, iPad and Android apps.
The grown-ups area
The grown-ups area sits behind a simple sum, such as 6 × 7. It keeps young children out; it isn’t a password. In it you can:
- see what each learner can do, in plain statements;
- check a mark, and choose Count it as right if the app marked a right answer wrong;
- flag a question that looks wrong, and save a question-report file to send to us;
- save or load a progress file, and delete everything.
About the lessons
Mathfinch has 300 lessons from Year 1 to A level, following the national curriculum for England. The year shown on each lesson is where it is usually first met; it’s a guide, not a gate, so a learner can go back to strengthen earlier topics or look ahead.
Every lesson passes automated maths checks, but the lessons haven’t yet been checked by a qualified teacher, and the app says so. Some practical skills and written proofs are taught but can’t be marked by the app. If a question looks wrong, please report it from the grown-ups area or email hello@redlinesecurity.net.
Making it easier to use
- Read to me: for Years 1 and 2, questions, hints and feedback can be read aloud.
- Text size, style and motion: in the grown-ups area, make text larger, choose a look for younger or older learners, and reduce movement.
- Clear type: Mathfinch uses Atkinson Hyperlegible, a typeface designed to be easy to read.
- Light or dark: the app follows your device’s setting.