Maths has become incredibly difficult at primary school
But is it necessary for secondary school? Or, for that matter, the real world?
Welcome to How to be a Teacher. Here, I share what I learn from the experts closest to me who, between them, share more than 70 years of experience in the education world with me. I think it’s only fair that you benefit from that as well.
This week, as we’re on our Easter holidays, I’m reflecting on my teaching experience with an opinion piece. I’m exploring maths at primary school vs maths at secondary school and taking a look at whether it needs reassessing (spoiler alert - it does!).
Enjoy!
The past two weeks on How to be a Teacher have featured a few opinion pieces because, it being Easter, I’ve been at home with my thoughts rather than surrounded by the usual teaching experts.
Recently, I wrote about the fact that children must demonstrate swathes of joined handwriting to achieve Year 6 expected standard (EXS). For a cohort that missed much of Years 1 and 2 – the years where pen grip and foundational handwriting skills are built – this is an unnecessary challenge. Despite this, it carries such weight with the writing moderation at the end of Key Stage 2 (end of Year 6) that it can be enough to label a student as being behind in their writing proficiency, whatever the quality of their writing content.
I get what some people have said – joined handwriting is neater, and the motor skills it requires fuel better motor skill development.
But I have a problem with both points:
1) Joined handwriting doesn’t make a child’s work neater if they’re more familiar with non-joined handwriting
2) There are some much more interesting ways to practice fine motor skills, and they require a greater variety of movements as well.
I’d be more inclined to champion joined handwriting if I knew my students were heading off to secondary school at the end of the year with the same expectations… but they’re not!
The reality of Year 6 maths expectations
Secondary schools have no requirements to push joined handwriting – and, according to the handful of people I’ve spoken to, they actually prefer children not to use it.
It’s also an additional challenge for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), one that simply doesn’t matter and only makes a school experience that already doesn’t suit them more uncomfortable.
So there. I’ve made my mind up.
I’ve already established that handwriting expectations between primary and secondary schools are inconsistent.
But that’s not the only bizarre transition between primary and secondary school curricula.
Maths doesn’t get much harder at secondary school than primary school.
Here are two maths questions:
They are taken from last year’s foundation non-calculator paper at GCSE level.
They are questions 22 and 23 respectively.
They are the only questions in the paper above the level I currently teach. That’s right – of 24 questions in total in this GCSE paper, my Year 6 students have already learned 22 of them.
GCSEs are taken in Year 10 at the earliest, Year 11 for most.
That means my children – some of whom would answer the rest of the paper correctly – have FIVE YEARS to learn how to do these questions. At which point they’ll be able to aim for 100%.
Even my struggling mathematicians would have a good go at most of the GCSE paper.
Here’s the thing: those same struggling students suffer so much with the workload, expectation, pace and challenge level of the maths we currently learn at Year 6.
Something isn’t adding up
Why are Year 6 students put under such duress when the next five years of maths don’t take much of a step up?
Yes, there are other papers at GCSE. Yes, there is the higher (more difficult) GCSE paper. Yes, there are other skills they learn that don’t appear in the foundation paper.
But nearly half of the questions on the higher paper are the same as the foundation one!
And the maths we learn at Year 6 is already beyond what most adults need.
“But there are so many jobs that use maths-“
Listen – if you’re an accountant or a mechanic, computers are doing most of the tricky stuff already. “Maths” jobs have changed.
And what other job requires you to know everything you need to do the job by the time you leave school – no, PRIMARY school? None! You learn at university or on the job, not sitting on a carpet in a classroom.
Mathematics advocates always argue me on this, so let me be clear – I’m not dissing maths. I love maths. The right/wrong nature of it suits me down to the ground and I’m good at it.
And I know the value it has in the world. Without it, you’d get ripped off every time you went shopping, turn up everywhere at the wrong time and buy furniture that doesn’t fit your living room. Probably while getting ripped off again. And you’d miss the delivery slot.
But – and listen carefully – adults DO NOT need the level of maths we do at Year 6.
Prove it, Mr Watson
Well, firstly, ask any non-teaching/non-maths-doing adult if they can divide fractions or calculate a percentage amount of a decimal with nothing put a pencil and paper. I dare ya.
My students can do them both. Even those who historically struggle with maths are getting these skills right.
But that’s not all. Wait until you see this.
Here’s more proof we don’t need it – and this is impossible to debunk:
This headline from the Guardian means exactly what it says.
44% passed the maths.
That means 56% of them are getting by in VERY powerful jobs without the skills required to pass these papers.
(The pass mark is around 50%, by the way).
In comparison, 59% of Year 6 students nationally passed these papers in the actual exams.
Which is low. In 2019, the figure was 65%.
You cannot convince me that the maths we do at primary school is necessary.
And, if there was more communication between primary and secondary schools, I don’t think we’d have this mess. I think we’d have a curriculum that segways seamlessly from one setting to another with a clear plan for skill progression and appropriately managed lessons.
It took me 11 years of school to learn the maths I came away with. For some reason, we now cram almost all of it into our children’s first 6 years. It’s too much, it’s stressing them out and we teachers are feeling the strain of making sure these senseless expectations are being met.
But, still, meet them we do.
Because of the opinionated nature of this article, I expect many of you will have something to say yourselves – so go ahead! It’s always good for me to hear as many viewpoints as possible on matters that I feel strongly about because it really does help shape my outlook. After all, I’m still a newish teacher and still have much to learn.
Click below to leave a comment.
I'm not sure what's happening with maths on a broader scale, but my own children and their friends' experiences suggest there may be a problem. They go to a British International School, where they take iGCSEs and As and A Levels. Classes are small, yet almost everyone is struggling with Maths. And I've heard something similar in Slovene schools. I think it has to do with missing a chunk of basic maths during lock down. Do you see that in the UK, too?
Such an insane standard we expect Y6 pupils to achieve these days! I had no idea there's not much, if any, progression from Y6 to GCSE!
I think you're right, better communication between Primary and Secondary colleagues would result in a more seamless transition, not only for maths but for every subject!