Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of using the grid multiplication method in maths teaching at key stage 2; and whether he plans to publish revised guidance to encourage that method in the curriculum.

The mathematics national curriculum was reformed in 2014. It was developed by the Department with advice from subject experts, to ensure that it provided the knowledge to progress in education and employment.

The national curriculum requires pupils in state-maintained schools to be taught a formal written method of multiplication and ‘Mathematics Appendix 1’ provides a set of examples for this.

There are no current plans to published revised guidance on this matter.