ABSTRACT
Mathematics is not merely a core subject of the National Curriculum but, like reading, is a subject that creates high states of public anxiety. The general public, the popular press, some public fi gures and some politicians never tire of telling us that children can no longer do arithmetic accurately. The stated aim of the policy introducing the Numeracy Strategy and its successor, the Primary National Strategy, was to raise the achievement of pupils in mathematics and, in 2007, the Minister responsible claimed that this goal had been reached: ‘Mathematics has risen for the fourth year in a row by one percentage point to 77 per cent, with improvements for both boys and girls’ (DfCSF Press Notice 2007/0145).
