Every primary school teacher has seen it happen: the moment a lesson clicks because it connects with what students genuinely care about. A hesitant reader suddenly dives into a biography about their sporting hero. A reluctant writer fills a page when the topic turns to Minecraft or Taylor Swift.

Maths can be exactly the same. When mathematical problems reflect children’s passions and real-world experiences, the abstract becomes meaningful, and student engagement soars.

Making maths meaningful for primary school learners

Too often, primary students view maths as a series of disconnected exercises – apples, oranges, trains, and sums that don’t relate to their world.

By contrast, when we use contexts students find familiar and exciting, we bridge the gap between the mathematical and the meaningful.

A question about counting Pokémon cards or calculating how many laps Oscar Piastri completes per race isn’t just more fun; it’s cognitively richer. Students begin to see that maths is everywhere in their lives, helping them to quantify, analyse, and understand the things they already love.

A quick example 

Consider these two simple word problems:

“A pack of Pokémon cards has 10 cards. If Alex buys 3 packs, how many cards altogether?”

“Taylor Swift’s tour has 12 shows across 4 cities. How many concerts per city?”

These problems don’t change the underlying mathematics, but they do change how students feel about solving them. The familiar context invites curiosity and agency. Students aren’t just solving a problem because the teacher said so; they’re solving it because it feels like theirs.

What the research tells us

Educational psychology offers strong evidence for the approach of engaging students with maths problems about their interests.

Deci and Ryan’s (2017) self-determination theory highlights that autonomy, competence, and relatedness are fundamental to motivation. When teachers use contexts that align with students’ interests, they boost two of these needs: autonomy (students feel ownership over their learning) and relatedness (the content feels connected to their world). Together, these needs drive intrinsic motivation – the kind that keeps students persisting even when problems get tricky.

Recent research supports this in maths classrooms specifically. Roche et al (2021) found that mathematical tasks and games and being offered a range of maths content beyond the maths domain contribute to primary school learners’ motivation to learn and their interest and engagement. Similarly, Bicer (2021) showed that contextualised and interest-driven problem solving improves not only motivation but also conceptual understanding and retention. When students see maths as personally meaningful, they are more likely to reason deeply and transfer their knowledge to new problems.

Why this matters

Relevance is more than a motivational hook – it’s a bridge to deeper learning. By connecting mathematical ideas to students’ lived experiences, teachers help them construct meaning rather than memorise procedures. As Boaler (2019) argues, when students experience maths as creative, connected, and personally relevant, their confidence and achievement both rise.

When learners see themselves reflected in their maths lessons, they begin to believe that maths is for them. And that belief is powerful – it lays the foundation for lifelong mathematical thinking.