For secondary-school students and their teachers · Pilot
Practice that meets each student where they are.
Groundwork serves fresh problems at the right level, tracks mastery skill by skill, and helps students think it through. Teachers see who is practising and who needs a hand.
The problem
Sound familiar?
- They understand it but the practice does not happen. The gap is follow-through.
- Worksheets run out. Fixed questions get memorised, and the next level never arrives at the right moment.
- Stuck means one of two things: the answer is handed over, or the student waits for the teacher.
- Who has mastered what is unclear. Marks record attempts, so mastery has to be guessed.
- It is hard to see who has dropped off until the test.
The solution
How it works
Endless fresh problems
at three levels for every skill, so a student can keep going until it sticks.
Answers are checked by what they mean.
6 + 2y and 2y + 6 both count, and a typo is never held against a student.
A hint ladder with four rungs.
It points toward the idea and never hands over the final answer. Asking for help always counts as a good move.
Mastery is measured
on a rolling window of recent top-level attempts, so mastery means consistent success over time.
Short lessons come first:
“Learn it, Try it, Show it”.
Teachers see the class:
who has practised, how far each student has got, and who has gone quiet.
In practice
A closer look: a wrong answer
A Year 10 student gets an equation wrong. Groundwork shows what kind of slip it was and offers a nudge, never the answer. The student tries again. If they ask for more, the next hint goes a rung deeper. When they get it, the next problem comes up at the same level, until they are succeeding consistently at the top level and the skill counts as mastered.
What it replaces
Printed worksheets, generic practice websites and ad-hoc chatbots.
Working now
40 maths skills across five strands
22 science skills with lessons
12 algebra lessons
Unlimited randomised problems at three levels
Four-rung hint ladder
Mastery tracking
A teacher view of the roster and results
Being built
A version for whole schools, each with its own database
Teachers setting work for their class
Further maths lessons (measurement, patterns, trigonometry, number)
Proof
In use with a pilot class of secondary students.
Marking is deterministic, so a right answer is always marked right whether or not the AI is running.
Straight answers
- What about children's data?
- Students sign in with a personal link rather than a password, every view of a child's record is logged, and each school will have its own database. It moves to New Zealand hosting before a second school joins.
- Can we trust the AI?
- The AI adds hints and explanations. The marking never depends on it.
- Does it replace the teacher?
- It gives the teacher time and a clear picture of who needs them.
Built the CruxMS way
One real thing, one home.
Each fact is stored once, and everything else points to it. Change it in one place and it changes everywhere it matters.
One engine, never forked.
Every customer runs the same current code. Improvements reach everyone together, and your set-up lives in your data.
Make steps disappear.
The aim is fewer steps. When your systems share one record, the tasks of re-entering, chasing and reconciling go away.
Try it with one class.
Tell us the year level and subject and we'll talk about a pilot.