Good news! Schoolchildren in England are doing rather better at maths than you might think! The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (Timss) has just issued a report which states that our 10 year olds are among the best performers in the world.
The best results are achieved by the Pacific rim countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, but England outplays the USA, Germany and all other European countries apart from Russia.
Maths top 10 for 10-year-olds:
Hong Kong
Singapore
Chinese Taipei
Japan
Kazakhstan
Russia
England
Latvia
Netherlands
Lithuania
Of course the Government want to take the plaudits for this because it is the first set of children who have been through the system since the introduction of the Numeracy Strategy. Could it also have something to do with good software, produced by companies such as MathSphere, which is used in so many schools today?
Some other interesting factors came to light in the study, including:
IT plays an important role with 95% of pupils having access to computers outside school and they have little homework compared to other countries.