Diagnostic Assessment of Numeracy Skills (DANS)

This Assessment enables specialist maths teachers to determine areas of numerical strength and weakness in their students, facilitating intervention and the writing of Individual Maths Development Plans.
The activities are concrete based with many games and allow the students to really show what they know. The Assessment is laid out as two separate one-hour lessons but can easily be given as four thirty-minute lessons. As this is not a standardised test it can be adapted to meet your students’ needs.

The Key Stage One Assessment looks at the following skills and analyses the students’ responses:

visual spatial skills
non-numerical and numerical sequencing to 100
number patterns and number bonds
doubling, halving and simple multiplication
coins
mathematical vocabulary, the four operations and problem solving
The Key Stage Two Assessment looks at the following skills and analyses the students’ responses:

visual spatial skills
counting, sequencing, rounding and partitioning to 1000
mental maths and formal written calculation
multiplication and division
fractions, decimals and time
mathematical vocabulary and problem solving
What’s in the bag?
The test consists of a test manual, KS1 easel, KS2 easel, a series of card games in folders, a box of equipment including dice, counters, and shapes. A starter kit of numicon and a memory stick with additional resources and a recording framework.