Something that has been on mind for a while and that I raised at my recent success-themed Maths Leaders’ training . . .

If we’re teaching to the end of KS2 Maths SATs tests in Year 6, why aren’t we teaching to the SATs in Years 3, 4 & 5? After all, 64% of the questions in 2023 were from the Years 3, 4 & 5 curriculum.

If we’re teaching a mastery curriculum up to the end of Year 5, why isn’t everyone teaching like this in Year 6?

Why the change in structure and style? Why cramming, repeatedly testing and constantly recapping? And don’t mention Covid. It was like this before children lost face-to-face education due to the lockdowns.

Why are we teaching maths at all? Children tell me it’s so they can get a good job or so they can work out their money when they’re older.

Ask why we teach reading. The answers are endless and creative and open doors to imagination. Not just about adult working life.

My point is that something’s not right in the way we approach teaching maths. We all know how adults often openly admit to not being good at or not liking maths. For many secondary students, the thought of pursuing maths through to 18 is a daunting, if not horrific, prospect. Enough to put some off learning altogether.

Attitudes. Ask children in EYFS & KS1 if they like maths, the likely answer is a resounding yes. As they go through KS2,  this is often (not always) only a yes for those who say, “I’m good at it.” From this, it seems success is the reason for their enjoyment. Not necessarily challenge or a pride at their success after perseverance and resilience but success relating to “getting it right”. Ticks – teacher’s or their own.

Come away from your school’s vision for maths for a moment. We all want ‘confident children who can reason and problem solve in later life …’  What would we want success to really look like? Why?

A Headteacher recently told me he wanted to change the practice in his school so that the children didn’t have a 7-year diet of similar-looking slides and sheets. He could see some benefits of their use and was happy for teachers to use them when well-suited, as long as they reflected on when alternative approaches may be more beneficial and not to use them every day, regardless of the previous day’s outcomes. He didn’t want these children switching off from maths due to the ‘same old, same old’ for their whole primary experience. Hence his ‘magical maths’ training and my ‘effective use of resources to make maths memorable’ INSET.

Many schools have taken up schemes and guidance for a mastery curriculum in the last few years. They’ve changed how they teach maths and many in a positive way. Children like and learn from the concrete-pictorial-abstract approach, the scaffolded learning and adaptive teaching. They always have, even before we named it. This isn’t what I’m talking about.

Where’s the fostering of a love of maths? Equate this to reading for pleasure.

Consider this, you’ve heard it before . . . do what you’ve always done and you’ll get what you’ve always got. That might be great KS2 SATs outcomes but what if that is also children who think they only do maths because there are SATs in Year 6 and GCSEs in Year 11 or to get a good job. Would we accept that as the sole reason for learning to read? No, we’d be heartbroken.

So just take a moment to consider: why do we teach maths and what are we doing about changing attitudes to maths? No, for the love of maths . . . what are we doing about winning hearts and minds?