6/18/2008 6:50:00 AM
The Guardian 17 June
Primary schools in England will put more emphasis on mental arithmetic after ministers today accepted the findings of a review of maths teaching. About 13,000 maths "champions" will be recruited to achieve the goal of the report's author, Sir Peter Williams, who said children should leave primary school without a fear of maths and should master the basics of the subject by the age of seven. From a young age, children should be playing with shapes, time, capacity and numbers to foster their "natural instincts" in numeracy, said Williams, the chancellor of Leicester University. Mathematical experiences should be fun and build children's confidence in their ability to cope with the subject. The report recommends parents should play a greater role in helping their children enjoy and understand maths, by cooking with them, for example. But it concludes that teachers, not parents, determine what children learn about maths - especially as the way it is taught has changed greatly since most parents went to school. The "can't do" approach to maths in England needs to be reversed, it says, as parental attitudes have a significant impact on the way children view the subject. The report aims to reverse the culture in Britain, where people boast about their inability to cope with maths. The review said it would take 10 years and £187m to train maths champions, who will be drawn for those already teaching. About 3,000 specialists could be found straight away and the extra 10,000 would be retrained. The Department for Children Schools and Families said it would develop plans for training specialist maths teachers with a "pathfinder" programme this autumn and full implementation in 2009.Guardian
Curriculum / Quality Assurance | Primary
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