Using AI to create maths resources at the start of 2026

We have come a long way

Happy New Year!

TLDR

This post is very much aimed at my fellow maths resource-creating geeks. If this is not you, to sum up: I have built a series of free maths resources called Super 8s here. I hope you and your students find them useful.

The background

Long-time readers may know I have been experimenting with AI to create resources to support maths teachers for the last couple of years. Back in September 2024, I wrote a series of three posts investigating whether AI could anticipate student misconceptions, write a good diagnostic question, and ultimately plan a maths lesson. The results were promising, but certainly mixed.

Fast-forward 15 months, and on the face of it, not much has changed. There are no new entrants to the market; Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT remain the major players, each with slightly larger numbers appended to the end of their models.

But all is not the same.

The big change came late in 2025 with the arrival of Gemini 3.0. A few of the geeky newsletters I follow suggested this was not your regular model tweak, but a major upgrade. This was soon followed by Claude’s Opus 4.5, which again received rave reviews, particularly for its coding capabilities.

These developments coincided with a chat on my podcast with Duncan Grantham, who described his process for creating maths resources using HTML rather than LaTeX, as I had been using.

So, with a bit of time off from Eedi in December, I decided to experiment.

I have not updated my mrbartonmaths.com website for about 5 years. I asked a colleague, Ewan, to help me recreate the site's most popular pages in WordPress, and with essentially a blank canvas, I began creating new content.

Super 8s: The idea

The first thing I built was a series of pages that teachers could use to provide consolidation or retrieval practice, and students could use for independent revision. I wanted each page to cover a specific topic, and have the following features:

1. Each topic broken down into super-specific skills for very focused practice.

2. Regeneration of questions for unlimited practice.

3. The ability to print a worksheet of the chosen questions.

4. The ability to display the chosen questions full-screen.

5. Single-click reveal of answers to individual questions or to all questions.

6. The option to display step-by-step solutions to any one question, complete with commentary.

Eight felt like a nice number for a chosen set of questions, so I called them Super 8s.

Super 8s: The prompt

I copied the above, described my WordPress setup, pasted it into Gemini, and asked it to build a page to practice adding and subtracting fractions (classic!). The results were, unsurprisingly, mixed.

What followed was a series of back-and-forths, with me telling Gemini what I liked and what I didn’t like, and us both making suggestions to improve the page. AI is often described as a thought-partner, and in this case, it really was.

It was very much two steps forward, one step back, but eventually, I was satisfied with the output.

The next step was critical: I asked Gemini to write a prompt I could share with an AI to build a Super 8s page on a different topic, while maintaining the same functionality as the current page.

I then used that prompt to build a Super 8s page on rounding to decimal places. The first output was much closer to what I wanted than the first output from the fractions page, but it was still not perfect. More back-and-forths ensued before I was happy, and again I asked Gemini to update the prompt with the changes we had made.

As this process continued, I introduced more complex topics - first algebra, then topics with statistical diagrams, and finally topics with images such as Pythagoras. Each time, I asked the AI to update the prompt to incorporate the new changes.

I am currently on Version 17 of the prompt, and it is 56 pages long. It makes for good bedtime reading.

I can now give the prompt to Gemini or Claude, and it consistently produces Super 8 pages that look great. I still need to review each page carefully and provide detailed feedback, but my input is now primarily pedagogical in nature, such as adjusting the range of numbers used, or consolidating skills. I genuinely enjoy the process.

I have built 129 Super 8s so far, and I reckon there will be 300 by the time I am done, covering Key Stages 1 to A Level.

Let’s look at the output.

Super 8s: The features

#1 Topic breakdown

Each topic is broken down into skills, typically 25 to 40. The teacher or student can select one skill to practice, or as many as they like. Here is the breakdown for factorising monic quadratics.

#2 Regeneration of questions

The teacher or student can choose to change any individual question, or change the whole lot at the click of a button. For example, here are the first two sets of questions generated by selecting a few addition and subtraction skills from the Four Operations in Context topic:

#3 Worksheet creation

The questions can be instantly turned into a one-page worksheet (answers are on page 2). Here is a worksheet for SATs Paper 2 essential skills (I have created mixed-topic essential skills Super 8s for each year from Year 1 up to A Level).

#4 Fullscreen display

Alternatively, the teacher may wish to project the answers full-screen. Here is full-screen mode for telling the time from an analogue clock:

#5 Answer reveal

Answers can be revealed for individual questions or all questions. Here are the answers to the foundational skill of drawing the grid in the expanding single brackets topic.

#6 Step-by-step solutions

Teachers or students can access detailed, step-by-step solutions to any question, complete with supporting commentary. Here is an example from the written subtraction topic:

The future

Over the course of this year, I plan to create a Super 8 page for every maths topic, from Key Stage 1 to A Level. I also plan to:

1. Build step-by-step solutions to SATs, GCSE, Level 2 Further Maths, and A Level exam papers. See what I have built so far here.

2. Create more tools to help teachers in the classroom. See what I have built so far here.

3. Build more games to help students develop core numeracy skills. See what I have built so far here.

4. And a few other surprises.

All of this is free and always will be. There are ads on each page that can be quickly minimised that support this project and justify the time I spend on it in evenings and weekends to my wife.

Longer-term, and much more ambitious, I would like to integrate these resources into a new Eedi classroom tool we have built and are currently piloting with a group of Year 4 teachers - more on this in the near future.

In the meantime, have a play around with Super 8s, and the other pages on my updated mrbartonmaths website, and let me know what you think. If you and your students find it useful, please share it with colleagues.

Is this useful for you and your students?

What do you agree with, and what have I missed?

Let me know in the comments below!

🏃🏻‍♂️ Before you go… 🏃🏻‍♂️

Check out my brand-new 16-part book series, The Tips for Teachers guide to… here.

Thanks so much for reading, and have a great week!

Craig