Analysis: The young must have life’s basic tools and we must equip them with numeracy

IT’S a big change for youngsters when they go from primary school to secondary – it’s what we call the transition years. There’s often a tailing off, which research suggests is result of a change of environment, a change of school and a change of staff, writes Donald Macdonald

Basically, they have been taken out of their comfort zone and it does have an impact. However, that tends to be short-lived. I hope that managing that change is something we do much better in 2012 than 30 years ago, when I began teaching.

In terms of numeracy, I think Curriculum for Excellence is making a difference, without doubt. I am confident it will yield results.

Numeracy in high schools is now the responsibility of all teaching staff, not just the maths teacher.

That means we take every opportunity to reinforce the teaching of numeracy, whether it is in maths, geography or history.

It could mean the use of dates, or the size of populations, but there is now a co-ordinated approach. It’s appreciated by pupils because they can see the clear links between subjects.

One thing that happened in the past was that rote learning, specifically of the times tables, went out of fashion. I think it’s clear now that we got that wrong. We did youngsters a disservice because learning the times tables is absolutely fundamental.

When I hear people say that numeracy is not important because everyone has access to calculators and smartphones, it makes me want to throw my hands up in the air. Numeracy is key and the renewed focus on it has been welcomed in the classroom. It’s the building block for getting everything else right.

One thing we saw in the past was that the times tables became more unfashionable as calculators became cheaper and more children had access to them. That was a mistaken idea. In fact, it was miles off.

I share Michael Russell’s confidence in Curriculum for Excellence. In terms of numeracy, it’s about sharing the responsibility between staff in secondary schools in the way that’s currently done in the primary schools.

That is something we are beginning to learn from the primary sector – that numeracy doesn’t end with the maths class. That approach will benefit everyone and will help eradicate the dip we are seeing between primary and secondary school.

• Donald Macdonald is the headteacher of James Gillespie’s High School in Edinburgh