Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on improving attainment in mathematics in primary schools.

Since 2010, the department has overseen a transformation in the way mathematics is taught in schools based on the best available international evidence. Reform of the mathematics curriculum and testing system was accompanied by the introduction of a national network of 40 Maths Hubs, to help local schools improve the quality of their teaching.

Maths Hubs deliver the department’s Teaching for Mastery programme, which is bringing teaching practice from high performing east Asian jurisdictions to primary and secondary schools across England. The programme aims to reach 75% of primary schools by 2025. Maths Hubs also run the Mastering Number programme, which helps children in the first years of primary school master the basics of arithmetic, including number bonds and times tables. This programme will reach over 8,000 schools by 2024, and the department is expanding it into Years 4 and 5 to bolster fluency in times tables.

The percentage of pupils meeting the Key Stage 2 expected standard in mathematics in the 2022/23 academic year was 73%, up from 71% in 2022. Pre-pandemic, England achieved its highest ever mathematics score in the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study international test for Year 5 pupils. Although the study was affected by the pandemic, analysis of the Programme for International Student Assessment 2022 results for 15 year olds showed that England had risen in the rankings from 17^th for mathematics in 2018 to 11^th in 2022. Ofsted recently found a “resounding, positive shift in primary mathematics education”.

All eligible Year 4 pupils in England are required to take the Multiplication Table Check, which is an on-screen assessment testing pupils' ability to fluently recall their knowledge of multiplication tables up to 12 x 12. 29% of eligible children scored full marks in 2023, up from 27% in 2022, and the average attainment score in 2023 was 20.2, up from 19.8 in 2022.