THE WILLIAMS REVIEW OF MATHEMATICS - TEACHING IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

19 March 2008

Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Europe’s largest teaching union said:

“The interim report is practical and timely.  There is every argument for all primary schools to each have a trained specialist mathematics teacher.

“However, coupled with the 2010 requirement for primary schools to teach modern foreign languages, the future training costs for primary schools are likely to be considerable.  There will need to be significant extra funding for primary schools to pay for both training and the additional pay responsibility points for new specialists.

“As the report says, there is much good work on mathematics taking place in primary schools.  Nevertheless it is too gloomy about teachers’ qualifications.  The report omits the fact that all trainee teachers have had to take skills tests in mathematics for the last few years as well as GCSE Maths”.