Fire the three facts fast and take three hands-up answers each, not open call-outs. Then take a couple of honest answers to the table question, you want at least one pupil naming a table they find slow — that is the table today's helper-fact idea will rescue.

3 x 4 = 12, the starting fact. Get the class saying twelve fast before moving on.

6 x 4 is the key one. Ask: six fours is double which fact we just did? Double twelve = 24, then reveal.

4 x 7 is the slow-table rescue. Two sevens is fourteen, so four sevens is double fourteen = 28.

Land the message: find a fact you know, then double to reach the one you don't. No counting fours.

This round is for talking it through together — pupils take turns at the board and the class agrees or corrects out loud.

Keep it untimed so nobody freezes. Rotate five or six pupils across the run so more of the class gets a turn. When a pupil reaches a 3s or 4s fact, pause and ask 'which fact did that lean on?' — revoice a good answer: so four sixes was double two sixes. If time is tight, run just the run once; if there is room, ask one pupil to explain their helper aloud before answering a 3s or 4s fact.

These are the practice questions — pupils take turns at the board, and the class confirms each answer before moving on. Keep the board work brisk rather than over-explaining.

You do not have to run all four decks. Always run the 2s/10s warm-up and finish on the mixed deck; add the 5s and 3s/4s decks in between only if time allows. On the 3s and 4s deck, prompt 'spot the helper before you answer'. The mixed deck is the key one — the win here is choosing the right table fast, not counting it out. Fast finishers watching the board should mouth the next answer, not do desk work.