ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationship with parents and their understanding and expectations of mathematics across the primary age range. Most teachers have been involved in parents' evenings or parental consultations to discuss individual children's progress, or may be the transfer from Foundation stage to KS1 or from primary to secondary school. Parental attitudes vary in the same way that children's attitudes do, but they can have a significant impact on children's views of the subject, even before they really start to find out about mathematics. Family Numeracy is a programme which works with groups of children and their parents. This appears to be as successful as its Family Literacy counterpart, in raising attainment and breaking a cycle of familial under-achievement in areas of high social deprivation. In relation to mathematics, there may some additional work for the transition from primary to secondary school around a number of issues.
