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Parents to have maths lessons with children
Dominic Hayes, Education Correspondent17 Jun 2008
A major government review of how maths is taught in primary schools is set to recommend joint parent-andchild lessons and a recruitment drive for specialist teachers.
The final report by Sir Peter Williams, chancellor of Leicester University, is published today and is due to blame a massive lack of expertise in most primary schools for the fact that one in four 11-year-olds do not have the counting skills expected of their age.
Ministers, who are expected to accept most of his recommendations, hope that the report will usher in a culture change so that it is no longer seen as "okay to laugh about how rubbish you are at maths".
The review was ordered by Schools Secretary Ed Balls, in one of his first major decisions on being appointed to the job last year by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Sir Peter's interim report, which was published in March, warned there was "no room for complacency" if England's failings at maths were to be tackled.
"The United Kingdom remains one of the few advanced nations where it is socially acceptable - fashionable even - to profess an inability to cope with mathematics," he said at the time.
"That is hardly conducive to a home environment in which mathematics is seen by children as an essential and rewarding part of their everyday lives."
His recommendations are expected to include:
• A specialist maths teacher for every primary school.
• Joint lessons for parents and their children in nursery and primary schools.
• Intensive lessons for pupils who are struggling.
• More maths graduates in nurseries and playgroups and better integration of the subject's curriculum for twoand three-year-olds, and those further up the age scale.
• All new primary school maths teachers should have at least Cs in the two maths GCSEs being created from the current, single qualification, one of which involves harder, more theoretical content.
• All existing primary school teachers, not just those who are their institution's designated maths specialist, should undergo fresh training in the subject.
• The maths curriculum should be reviewed although Sir Peter believes that the content - criticised by some teachers as too demanding for many pupils - is broadly correct.
Mr Balls also told primary schools to teach times tables a year earlier, from the age of eight, and restrict the use of calculators in classrooms, when he announced the review.
The hardest recommendation to implement will be the recruitment of sufficient maths specialists to give every primary school such in-house expertise.
In 2006, just 227 out of almost 10,000 primary teacher trainees had a degree in maths, a science or an engineering or technology subject, according to the Training and Development Agency for Schools.
The National Union of Teachers warned that implementing Sir Peter's recommendations would cost a huge amount of money.
NUT acting general secretary Christine Blower said: "Extra resources should be guaranteed for posts for maths specialists in small primary schools. Indeed mathematics tuition carried out by qualified teachers should be guaranteed for all children who need it."
Reader views (4)
As a current deputy headteacher I echo the thought that standards are falling in standards of most new teachers.
My current school and previous schools have tried to fail students for poor grammatical and mathematical ability, but were not allowed to do so by universities, as they had to meet their targets set by Government to produce teachers to solve recruitment crisis.
Adverts also try to recruit people to teaching through telling the audience how you much you can earn. If you do it for money you are in teaching for the wrong reason. To do the job properly you need to have enthusiasm, and in my experience latest students are joining th e profession for the money and not for the kids. Likewise the £3000 incentive to undertake a PGCE teacher training courses.
However, the Government also needs to accept the blame. The constant new initiatives and workload quite simply are wearing down the profession..... it's a vicious circle.
It'll get worse before it gets better, but believe me there are excellent and very competent teachers out there, just give them the chance to wade through the mass of government hoops and paperwork to do the job.
- M, west midlands, 15/09/2008 21:21
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What is the point in having a education system, when the government seem to be promoting HOME EDUCATION. Parents are already being told to read with their child for one hour, now it seems that we will need to do maths with them as well. This is just confirming for me that Home Educating my child is the right way to go. It's quite clear that the government think that parents can do a better job at teaching our children than the teachers that they employ. My advice is withdraw your child from school and do a better job yourself....
- Michele Smith, Bedworth, Warwickshire, 15/09/2008 20:21
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A few years ago my child brought a note home from her class teacher, regarding some problem or other at the school, which said "Please bare with us while we sort the problem out". The teacher also happened to be the literacy co-ordinator of the school (which had all the QCA "Brownie badges" for the quality of its literacy teaching, together with good Ofsted reports). Similar gaffes, together with glaring punctuation errors, in the head teacher's newsletters. They blamed the office staff and maintained they didn't have time to proof-read everything, but I eventually lost any belief in their ability to educate my child. And don't get me started on maths, or the social and behavioural problems that exist even in supposedly "good" schools. We now home educate too, very successfully, and have a happy, learning child with a growing group of socially competent friends. Our only wish is that we'd ditched school earlier.
- Noo, Surrey UK, 15/09/2008 20:21
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Why not simply employ primary school teachers who can teach? Sadly many teachers these days are educated themselves to a standard that is barely above what they would have achieved at a primary school in the 1960's. We effectively have Maths, Science and English illiterates teaching our kids and we wonder why half of them can't read when they leave school. Have you ever had e-mail traffic from any of the illiterates that infest our public services recently? It is almost unbelievable how far the standards have slipped but surely we simply can't accept it any longer in the teaching profession. If a teacher can't teach, and the parents all know who these teachers are, then get them out of teaching before they damage any more kids. Schools are for kids to learn in and not for teachers to skive from the real world in. No-one should be allowed into teaching until they have worked at least ten years in a real job.
- John, Dundee, UK, 15/09/2008 20:21
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