Progress made on numeracy, but still ‘a long way to go’

In just under half of primary and secondary schools inspected in 2013/14, pupils were seen to develop good or better numeracy skills but in the remaining schools numerical skills were at best average. The findings come in the second of three reports by the education inspectorate detailing improvements being made in developing pupils’ numeracy skills across the curriculum.

The interim report, entitled Numeracy in Key Stages 2 and 3, generally found that schools have made progress since the first year of the survey. However, many of their strategies have yet to make a consistent impact on standards.

Ann Keane, the chief inspector, said: “It is pleasing to note the progress made by around half of the schools we inspected. However, it is important to emphasise that there is still a long way to go before schools make a full and consistent impact on improving the standards of pupils’ numeracy skills.