Numeracy for Life Committee
12 March 2026
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Numeracy for Life Committee House of Lords
00:02 - 02:19
Speaker 1
Everybody, and a big welcome to our witnesses today. Thank you all very much for for joining us. We have your bios, so that's very helpful. I perhaps need to disclose a minor interest in David Thomas and I have worked together before he was the head of one of our free schools in Norwich, which is today an outstanding rated school. So he played an important part in that.
Anyway, thank you very much. So we've questions which I think you have all seen and there will be a certain amount of fluidity in how the questions move. But I would ask that you we're gonna each of you will get a chance on each question. So I'd ask for brevity wherever possible so that because we want to get we need to get through this session by just after twelve. So if you're happy with that.
And I have the as the chairman, I get I get first dibs. So I'm going to ask my opening question which is You're aware that this is very much numeracy for life, so although there is quite a strong pull back into the education system, which is for obvious reason because that's where the building blocks are, we have to remind ourselves that it's also the adult part of the population that we're very concerned about for that huge proportion who are simply not operating at a numerate enough level for fulfilling career or indeed making simple life life decisions. So I just like to get a quick summary from each of you on where you think we are on maths education in both well, in in the three areas primary, secondary, and then I'm also interested in the the retake end, the FE end, and for example, the recent report of Alep who have made some recommendations on that that resetting end and the functional qualification. So if you could just do a couple of moments on each of those three phases and we'll we'll start with with you, Charlie.
02:19 - 02:59
Speaker 2
Thank you. So for for each of those three phases, I'd say that where we are at the moment at primary I think we've been making actually very good progress. We have through the work of the NCTM and the maths hubs we've been implementing a teaching for mastery pedagogy in schools which I think is is improving children's understanding of fundamental maths at primary school, and that's moving through into secondary as well. I think a big thing that we've done at primary school is that there used to be a a kind of a a system whereby children would be almost labeled when they were when they started primary schools to how good in mass they might be. And then the curriculum that they received kind of reflected that initial judgment.
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