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Every primary school to have a specialist maths teacher.

Secretary of State, Ed Balls and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools and Learners, Andrew Adonis announce the plans following on from a major independent maths review in primary schools.

Mr Balls said he would raise maths standards in primary schools by paying specialist maths teachers up to £8,000 in incentive payments and rewards to train towards gaining a Masters in maths teaching.

The Government will invest £24m over the next three years to set up and begin implementing a major training programme for 13,000 existing primary school teachers as he welcomed the final report of the Williams Review of early maths teaching.

The review will build on progress already made since 1997 - 83,000 more 11-year-olds each year now achieve the expected level in numeracy for their age, but more needs to be done to accelerate the pace and raise standards even further so that all schools are truly world class.

Accepting the recommendations in the Review, Ed Balls said he was committed to training the current teaching workforce in primary schools so that every school has a "maths champion" within 10 years, who will act as a mentor and coach as well as being an outstanding classroom teacher.

The key aspects of the recommendations are:

• At least 1,000 maths specialists should be trained every year for the next 10 years so there is one in every Primary School in the country
• This person should be a ‘maths champion’ and have deep mathematical subject and pedagogical knowledge
• Implementation should commence in 2009
• The programme should be targeted initially to narrow attainment gaps
• Teachers should be offered an incentive to train as a specialist maths teacher and a one off payment on completion
• There should be a fast-track training programme for teachers who have specialised in maths teaching during their training .

Related Tags :

• General
• Teaching and Learning
• Primary Schools

Last Edited Date : June 18 2008 10:44 am