Science: Primary Education

(asked on 18th November 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to encourage initiatives to promote science, engineering and maths in local primary schools.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 24th November 2014

We are promoting science, engineering and mathematics in primary schools in a number of ways. From September this year, we introduced a new primary curriculum which aims to align England with those countries that have the highest-performing school systems in the world. Our new primary curriculum sets out the essential knowledge pupils need to progress. There is a greater emphasis on the acquisition of scientific knowledge, an increased focus on practical work, and more emphasis on written methods of calculation. To ensure the focus on written and mental arithmetic, we have also removed the use of calculators from the end of Key Stage 2 tests.

The Department funds several programmes to support the teaching of science and maths at primary including funding 50 local Science Learning Partnerships that deliver professional development to science teachers. In mathematics, we have established a network of 32 new Maths Hubs across England backed by £11 million of funding. These centres of excellence will implement the Shanghai-style mastery approach to mathematics. Central to this is a Shanghai teacher exchange programme. The hubs will also lead a project to trial the use of textbooks at the core of a mastery teaching approach in selected primary schools.

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