Although it’s hard to believe, given the bad press about Britain’s numerical skills at the moment, the number of students studying A Level maths is at a 35 year high. Yet fewer people study maths up to 18 in Britain than in any other developed country and millions of Britons struggle with even basic calculations. The Department of Education is extremely keen to improve the situation and the plans to make maths compulsory for students up to the age of 18 are now well under way.

The changes are being spearheaded by Sir John Holman, who is the senior education adviser to the Wellcome Trust and emeritus professor of Chemistry at York University. Holman told the Sunday Times “we need a qualification that is at the level of A-level but is designed for people who are going on to study a subject which is likely to be more in the medical, biological and social sciences than in the engineering and physical sciences – which is what the present A-level is eminently suited to.”

There are concerns at the moment that the current maths A-level is not as useful as it could be to people going onto study subjects other than pure maths at university, but who will require mathematical skills. According to the new plans, students will be able to choose from a variety of maths qualifications, so that they can study the subject in a way that will be most useful to them, according to their particular needs and ambitions.

I think that it is fantastic that there will be different options for students, rather than everyone having to do exactly the same qualification. As far as I’m concerned, ‘one size fits all’ does not work at all in the world of education, and so I sincerely hope that the new reforms will be hugely beneficial to all students.

I recently wrote a blog about the popularity of Google and other search engines among young children. A staggering 91% of children asked in a survey for Birmingham Science City said that they regularly consult the internet when they have a question or query. Moreover, millions of young people use websites such as Facebook on a daily basis and play computer games. We have a generation who know how to use computers and the internet to serve their needs, but do they know how these things actually work?

In the distant corners of my memory I recall a school History lesson (I must have been in year seven or eight, so it was aeons ago), when our teacher was telling us about medieval family homes and how the people living then would know exactly how everything in their house worked, and probably also knew how to fix things when they broke. This is a long way away from how things are today; I have no idea how my mobile phone really works, how to fix the washing machine if it breaks, and indeed my kettle stopped functioning three weeks ago and having failed to discover the root of the problem I’ve resorted to boiling water in a pan on the hob. According to an article by Eleanor Mills in The Sunday Times, I am certainly not the only one who does not know about the inner workings of technology.

Mills wrote about the fact that most children now learn how to use computer software, but have no idea about computer programming. She quoted Ian Livingstone, who is the author of a recent report on education and technology called NextGen, and has said, “it’s like teaching them to read but not how to write”. Computer games and computer-generated special effects are huge businesses here in the UK and it has been predicted that computer games alone will be worth £55 billion a year worldwide by 2014. If we start to teach children how to write code, then we the UK can really flourish in this extremely lucrative and prosperous market. Livingstone believes that computer science should be more prominent in schools because “kids love it…it teaches them maths, physics, logic. Britain is the most creative country in the world; we need to give our kids the coding skills to create the next Twitter or Google.”

Thanks to a new mini computer called the Raspberry Pi, we might just have a fantastic tool to help support Livingstone’s belief that all kids should learn about code. The Raspberry Pi costs only £22 and is specifically aimed at schools and children. It has been designed by Eben Upton and David Braben, who were concerned that they had met so many students had no idea “what a computer really was or how it worked”. The Raspberry Pi will hopefully help thousands of children and young people to learn about computer programming and with any luck; we will soon have more people who know how technology works as well as how to use it, and might even design fantastic new technological innovations themselves.

Britain’s numerical skills, or lack thereof, have been a big feature in the news this week. Carol Vorderman has been particularly vocal about her concerns regarding how many Britons cannot solve basic mathematical problems and a new charity called National Numeracy has been highlighting its worries about the millions of people who struggle to understand the numbers on their bills, payslips and even train timetables.

According to Government figures about half the population of England only have primary school-level mathematical skills. In this country only about 15% of the population study maths beyond the age of 16, whereas the figure in most developed nations is between 50-100%, underlining how behind we are, when it comes to the way we value mathematics.

Chris Humphries, who is the chairman if National Numeracy said in a BBC article that research suggests that the annual cost to the public coffers of poor numerical skills is £2.4bn. This is a staggering amount of money, and an amount which need not be wasted, if we take maths more seriously in schools. Moreover, many people struggle to get jobs because they cannot perform simple calculations or interpret data presented to them in tables and graphs. Sir Mike Rake, chairman of BT has said, “Poor numeracy is the hidden problem that blights the UK economy and ruins individuals’ chances in life.” Carol Vorderman has said that she is ‘horrified’ by Britain’s poor maths skills and is calling for the GCSE exams to be seriously reexamined.

The department of Education is considering plans to make maths compulsory to the age of 18 and the GCSE syllabus is currently being reassessed. Hopefully the widespread publicity about Britain’s poor numerical skills will kick-start an energetic and positive move forward to help improve the situation.

If you want to test your maths skills, why not try this quick test from the BBC.

Last year the Evening Standard published worrying statistics about the extent of London’s illiteracy problem. Too many children are being allowed to leave primary school without adequate literacy skills. Permitting children to go onto secondary school without being able to read or write is doing them an enormous disservice. Fortunately, the revelation has promoted positive action in order to help get more children reading and writing. However it appears that the UK not only has worrying illiteracy levels at the moment, but that thousands of people have barely any numeracy skills either.

A recent study by the Royal Society of Arts has said that one in four English adults are unable to solve basic mathematical problems. The impact of poor mathematical skills is not just a personal issue and it has enormous implications for industry and the economy.

Scotland and Hong Kong have both been lauded for having excellent mathematical teaching systems, and the RSA is advising that the government should look to other countries for inspiration on how to reinvigorate and improve the teaching of maths in English schools.

Emma Norris, who is one of the authors of the report by the RSA, said to the BBC, “With nearly half of our students failing to achieve GCSE mathematics grade C or above, long term reform should be an urgent priority for ministers. The current system puts many students off maths for life. We need to find a new way to re-engage students.”

We need maths almost every day and students who want to do degrees in subjects such as sciences, medicine, psychology and even philosophy will need to have a particularly strong numerical education before embarking on undergraduate degrees. Only 15% of students continue studying maths after GCSE, but almost all students will need to use at least some maths after the age of 16. In Scotland a quarter of post-16 students continue studying maths, whereas over in Hong Kong all students must keep on the subject until they leave school.

The Department of Education has said that there are hopes to make maths compulsory until the age of 18, but in the meantime, maybe teachers need to draw inspiration from other countries and think of ways to engage their pupils with the subject more and help them to understand how vital a good knowledge of maths really is.

Here are a couple of fun exercises for 8-9 year olds to help keep those young brains active over the holidays.

Mystery Word

Each letter has its own number. Work out the sums below and then find out which letter belongs to the answer. Arrange the letters in order to create the mystery word.

A = 210
B = 100
C = 25
D = 44
E = 351
F = 72
G= 81
H = 308
I = 66
K= 139
L=981

M= 444
N= 19
O = 109
P = 1001
Q =901
R = 33
S = 48
T= 63
U= 7
V= 86
W= 99
X= 38
Y= 235
Z = 352

MYSTERY WORD: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

125 ÷ 5 =

14 x 22 =

537 – 428 =

100 ÷ 4 =

87 + 22 =

647 + 334 =

840 ÷ 4 =

7 x 9 =

13 x 27 =

Now make up your own word. Pick the letters, and then work out the sums you will need to get them. For example, if I wanted to start with ‘I’, I might use the sum 11 x 6.

Story time

There are lots of mistakes in this story. Do your best to find and correct them and then finish it off.
Wonce upon a time their was a little mice called Marcus who was teazed by the other mouses because Marcus did not like to eat cheeeze. Instead of eating it, sometimes he hid some bree in the corner of his cheeks, like a hamster, but then he wold spit it out later. Sometimes he would hide litle bits of cheddar in his poket and forget about them and find horible green mould in his clothes after weeks had gone by. The other mice called him names and woldnt let Marcus join in when they played there favourite game: hunt the kat. Marcus got so fed up that one day he decided to get his own bak…

Whilst writing a blog about GCSE maths skills the other day I got thinking about the state of my own brain when it comes to maths. Although I have to use very little maths on a day to day basis, I do have to make the odd calculation, and I’m sure I am not the only one who relies on the calculator on their phone rather heavily. I am acutely aware of how lazy I have become when it comes to mental arithmetic, bit I am also concerned about my lack of knowledge into the inner-workings of the devices I so often require for help. And it seems I’m not the only one who is worried about these things…

Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, recently criticised the British school system with his comment, ‘your IT curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software, but gives no insight into how it’s made.’ Admittedly I don’t know the fine details of the British IT curriculum, but if Eric’s right, then this is something which should definitely be addressed.

As things stand, most key stage 2 pupils learn about calculator skills and thus are taught to rely on electronic devices from a young age. Only 2% of schools in the country do not use calculators in maths lessons for 8-11 year-olds. Perhaps this reliance on computers is to blame for the poor GCSE maths results of so many young people. Around 50% of young people fail to achieve an A*-C grade in maths at the moment. This is appalling and we need to improve the situation.

In Asian countries, where school students are among some of the most mathematically adept in the world, calculators are rarely used in the classroom. In Singapore you will struggle to find a primary school which uses calculators, however you will be impressed by the arithmetic and numerical skills of the pupils. Should we follow Singapore’s example?

The Canadian province of Alberta, the US state of Massachusetts and many schools in Sweden are experimenting with the idea of reducing calculator use in the classroom in an attempt to improve pupils’ skills. So far the results seem to be successful and pupils’ maths results are on the rise.

We can’t deny that technology plays a vital role in the modern world; however, we must work out how to stop it from making us lazier and less intellectually adventurous and successful. As Eric Schmidt pointed out, we must also teach students about how technology is made and works so that we can understand it better so that we don’t end up with a generation of lazy consumers of laptops and smartphones.

Here is the second instalment of our special maths glossary. Make sure you print it and keep hold of it, as this may prove to be useful one day…

MIXED FRACTION (aka ‘mixed number’)
A whole number accompanied by a fraction, e.g. 2 3/4

MODE
The most commonly occurring value in a set of numbers.

NUMBER BOND
A pair of numbers with a particular total

NUMERAL
A symbol used to denote a number (e.g. Roman numerals)

NUMERATOR
The top number of a fraction

OBTUSE ANGLE
An angle greater than 90degrees, but less than 180.

PARALLEL LINES
Lines which are equidistant from each other and never meet

PERIMETER
The total length of all the sides of a shape

PERPENDICULAR
A line or a plane that is at a 90degree angle to another line or plane

PLOT
The process of marking points on a graph

PRIME FACTOR
The factors of a number that are also prime numbers (can only be divided by itself and one)

PROBABILITY
The likelihood of an event taking place

PRODUCT
The result when you multiply numbers together

PROPER FRACTION
A fraction with a numerator that has a lower value than the denominator

QUOTIENT
The answer when you divide numbers by each other

RADIUS
The distance from the centre of a circle to any outside point

RANGE
The measurement of the spread of a set of numbers (to find it, subtract the lowest number from the highest number)

REFLEX ANGLE
An angle that is greater than 180degress, but less than 360

REGULAR
Describes a polygon with equal sides and angles

RIGHT ANGLE
90degrees, or he quarter of a complete turn

SIMPLE FRACTION
A fraction with an integer for both the denominator and numerator

SUM
The answer when you add together two or more numbers

TANGENT
A line that touches a curve at only one point

UNIFORM
Things that do not change and remain constant

VERTEX
The point at which two or more lines intersect each other

It struck me today that in our education system there is a lot of emphasis on learning new words; new English words, new foreign words, and you may have noticed our ‘word of the day’ tweets and recent foreign vocab blogs. I then thought that it might be useful to focus on some subject-specific vocab. It’s all very well learning new words like ‘incandescent’ and ‘nebulous’ to enhance your writing, but all subjects have specialist vocab that you need to get to grips with if you are going to succeed.

Here is part one of a glossary of mathematical terms that you may wish to print out and file away for when you next get flummoxed by a numerical problem

ACUTE ANGLE
An angle between 0 and 90 degrees

ARC
A portion of a curve

AREA
A measure of surface. Usually measured in square units.

ARITHMETIC MEAN
The sum of a number of quantities divided by the number of quantities.

AVERAGE
Synonymous with ‘arithmetic mean’ or ‘mean’

BISECT
In geometry, to divide into two equal parts

CANCEL (a fraction)
Simplify a fraction by dividing the numerator and denominator by a common factor.

CIRCUMFERENCE
The length of a circle

COMPLEMENTARY ANGLES
Two angles which when added make 90degrees.

CONCAVE
Curving inwards

CONGRUENT
An adjective describing two or more shapes, which are identical in every way apart from their position.

CONVEX
Curving outwards.

CUBOID
A three-dimensional figure, which has six rectangular faces.

DENOMINATOR
The bottom number in a fraction

DIVISOR
The number by which another is divided.

EQUILATERAL
Sides of equal length

GRADIENT
The measure of a slope of a line

INTEGER
Any of the positive or negative numbers, and zero

MEDIAN
The middle number in a set of numbers.

Science is a bit like Marmite; people tend to either love it or hate it. Although I wasn’t very good at science at school, I do still find it fascinating. So even if it’s not your favourite subject at school, take a look at our brief overview of some scientific advancements throughout history, as you might just find it tickles your intellectual taste buds. We’ll be posting more detailed blogs about science through the ages shortly, but for now, here’s a quick introduction…

The Egyptians were very good at astronomy, and knew a great deal about the stars and constellations. However, beyond that they tended to explain everything through connecting events to the gods. The Greeks, as you know, also had many different gods and goddesses, and they too used their complex mythology to explain how the world worked. Later Greek philosophers, such as Aristotle and Archimedes, began explaining things through the application of maths, which meant that they started to gain more accuracy. Although the Egyptians and Greeks may not have had all of the answers to scientific questions, they were very good at engineering and building things and constructed amazing temples, theatres and palaces.

For a long time people thought that the Earth was the centre of the universe and they thought that the sun travelled around the Earth, rather than the other way around. In 1514 Copernicus secretly published his idea that the Earth went around the sun. He published his thoughts secretly because he was scared that the Church might get angry. In the following century, Galileo decided that he agreed with Copernicus. The Church was outraged by Galileo’s declaration that the Earth was not the centre of the universe and they accused him of heresy and locked him up in prison.

In 1660 the Royal Society was established and this sped scientific advancements up a great deal. Lots of brilliant scientists joined and over the following years: Isaac Newton constructed his Theory of Gravity, Robert Boyle worked out the basic elements of modern chemistry and Charles Darwin published papers about evolution and natural selection.

In 1911 Ernest Rutherford composed the first ever drawing of an atom. Unfortunately, while science can be used to help people and improve lives, it can also be used as a destructive force, and a few decades after Rutherford’s drawing, scientists in Italy and Germany worked out how to split the atom and thus figured out how to make atomic bombs, which could kill thousands of people.

Although we now know an awful lot about how our world works, how the human body works, and how animals live, there are still many things that we don’t know. Today there are thousands of scientists working all over the world to try and make new discoveries. I wonder what we’ll learn in the next few years…

Earlier on in the week we found out that Michael Gove wants to bring an end to modular GCSEs, and now the Education Secretary has announced that he wants to bring in more compulsory subjects at As and A Level.

Gove has announced that he wants the “vast majority” of pupils to study maths until they are 18. At the moment, pupils can give the subject up after they have completed their GCSEs aged 16.

One of the reasons behind Gove’s proposal is the fact that he considers British pupils to be lagging behind international students in certain subjects, particularly in maths. East Asian countries in particular place a great deal of emphasis on maths. Over here, the post-16 “maths gap” is common; even pupils who have done quite well at maths GCSE cannot remember much of the syllabus for very long.

Furthermore, pupils who give up maths younger will limit their degree options and will be unable to study subjects such as Physics, Chemistry and Engineering at university.

The government has commissioned a review of the national curriculum, which is due to be published shortly. Mr Gove has said that the review will “set out the essential knowledge that children need to advance in core subjects”, but not be “an attempt to prescribe every moment of the school day”.

Personally I think it is great shame that foreign languages are no longer compulsory at GCSE level, and I very much hope that the government will re-instate languages as core GCSE subjects. What do you think should be compulsory and how long should students be made to study certain subjects for?