Former World Darts Champion met South Woodham Ferrers pupils

Year Five pupils from Elmwood Primary School enjoyed a lesson with a difference on Monday as stars from the world of darts visited South Woodham Ferrers.

To coincide with the World Darts Championship, which is being held at London's Alexandra Palace across the Christmas period, professional player Keane Barry and referee Russ Bray led pupils in sessions of the Professional Darts Corporation's Bullseye Maths numeracy scheme.

Learning: referee Russ Brady with a Elmwood Primary School pupil (Image: Bullseye Maths)

Keane, a 21-year-old former Junior world champion from Ireland, shared his experience in the sport with potential stars of the future at Elmwood, and showed off his skills as well as helping pupils with darts-based numeracy challenges.

Sixty Year Five pupils participated across three sessions of Bullseye Maths, which aims to encourage numeracy with a range of worksheet-based theory and darts-playing practical exercises.

Headteacher Nerys Maidment said: "What a fantastic day for all the children in Year Five at Elmwood Primary School.

"I was particularly impressed with the fact that all the children were engaged in using their maths skills in a different context, including those who find maths tricky.

"Times tables, division, adding, subtracting, odd and even numbers and basic fractions were covered in an hour and each session was truly action-packed.

"The children were so excited to meet Keane Barry and Russ Bray, who were great fun, and it was a pleasure to welcome them into our school."

Starstruck: pupils with Keane Barry (Image: Bullseye Maths)

Bullseye Maths was introduced by the Professional Darts Corporation in 2022, with the in-school sessions accompanied by an online portal which includes the interactive Mathlete game, videos from top players and downloadable worksheets.

Keane said: "I really enjoyed the day at Elmwood and it was great to see the children getting involved with Bullseye Maths.

"There wasn't anything like this when I was at school but it's a really good idea and you could see how the maths was being used by the pupils.

"It's a really interesting way to introduce darts to young people and show them how you can use the numbers in a fun way."