Policy Hub
On 19 November 2008, the National Audit Office (NAO) published a report (Mathematics performance in primary schools: getting the best results)
The report notes that, since the late 1990s, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has had a specific strategy aimed at improving performance in primary mathematics. As such, the NAO seeks to examine the department’s performance in:
In 2007, pupils in their final year of primary school achieved the best set of results recorded so far in national mathematics tests, yet almost a quarter of pupils are still not reaching the expected standard.
The report suggests that meeting the 2011 target – for 84.5% of pupils to make at least two national curriculum levels of progress in mathematics – will be a considerable challenge. A significant minority of primary school pupils, including some of the more able, are not making as much progress as they might. For instance, in 2007 66,000 pupils did not make the nationally expected level of progress which their earlier attainment suggested they could. Similarly, in contrast to other subjects, girls are making less progress than boys, and there is a 20% gap in attainment at age 11 between pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers.
Since 2000, spending by primary schools has increased in real terms by more than 30% and the NAO estimates that £2.3 billion is now spent teaching primary school mathematics. Encouragingly, the report finds that improvement programmes targeted at lower performing primary schools are having a positive impact, with nearly 85% of primary schools achieving the department’s target for the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in their final year of primary school.
Mathematics performance in primary schools: getting the best results (PDF)