“Despite all the hard work on mastery, many children still don’t respond quickly and accurately when faced with basic number facts and procedures.”
Hearing a teacher make this comment made me reflect on how the previous government may have put the cart before the horse, driving “deeper learning” and “mastery” before ensuring that all schools have excellent systems for teaching basic number.
This is, perhaps, a significant factor behind the stagnation in key stage 2 mathematics results. One way forward is for schools to adopt an approach similar to their phonics programmes.
What is phonics for maths?
There was a time when “phonics” wasn’t a thing. Instead, children were exposed to words and texts, spending time with people who could already read, gradually acquiring the ability to read for themselves.
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