ABSTRACT
The Oxford dictionary definition includes references to insight, practical wisdom, and following a course of action. In one sense no school can fail to have a mathematics policy. The practice and the policy are both descriptions of the mathematics that is taught in a school. Practice and policy are inseparable. The difficulties that teachers faced in the early years of the National Curriculum came partly from having received little guidance about the form a written policy should take. The emergence of a common approach to policy documents has meant that things are now somewhat easier. Policy statements should emerge from, and describe, current practice. A written policy statement which does not describe, reflect and guide current practice is not only unhelpful but also potentially divisive. When a policy document does not embrace current practice it can’t easily acknowledge current levels of practical wisdom nor can it describe the current course of action that the staff are taking. The most likely results are a document full of wishful thinking, pious hope and a lack of connection with practice that does not bear scrutiny. The major challenge is to produce a written statement that: shows how the teaching of mathematics fits with the
school’s overall teaching intentions; states how the school’s general aims are realised in the
mathematics curriculum; realistically describes current practice;
shows links with those aspects of the school development plan that demonstrate how the school team intend the current practice to develop;
provides an appropriate introduction to the mathematics scheme of work;
shows how the policy document for mathematics fits with other policies.
