WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY.... CURRICULUM EVOLUTION OR
MISSED OPPORTUNITY? Comment by PAUL BANKS, CEO at Chelmsford Learning Partnership
T
he recent Curriculum and Assessment Review is a significant moment for English education and there is much to celebrate. In particular, the emphasis on delivering a curriculum that is genuinely broad and balanced is positive. A curriculum that drives outcomes and experiences, not just league table results, is welcome news to those of us who have spent years arguing that education should help children achieve more than just strong results. For too long, subjects such as the arts and sports have been undervalued in an accountability system that narrows, rather than enriches, pupils’ educational experience. A fundamental question remains unanswered though: how will any of this be delivered without transformative changes to funding and recruitment? The ongoing recruitment and retention crisis in the education sector is worsening every year whilst schools grapple with the effects of decades of chronic underfunding. Implementing significant changes to Key Stage 4 offers, developing new resources and embedding new practice by Spring 2026 is a tremendous task to accomplish in an incredibly short timeframe. Workload is already a primary driver of staff attrition, and this will only accentuate existing problems. Rebuilding a team of specialist teachers to deliver in newly prioritised areas will take time, especially while managing potential over-staffing in other subjects. It will also require a pipeline of specialist teachers who aren’t readily available. Another difficulty that our sector will face is the potential for further unfunded pay increases. Whilst the pay rise is well-deserved, it will place further pressure on already
stretched budgets, so promising a richer curriculum when schools are already struggling to deliver the existing curriculum feels disconnected from our current reality.
The limited focus on the early years in the review also strikes me as a missed opportunity. There is strong evidence that these years have the most profound impact on children’s outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. If we truly want to address the growing disadvantage gap, then there needs to be a concerted focus on the years before Reception.
Measuring the impact of the changes is essential, but the proposed Year 8 diagnostic assessment echoes the introduction of other accountability measures, such as phonics and multiplication tables. Although diagnostic testing is meant to help, there is a risk it will turn into yet another measure used to judge schools, making it look like they are falling short rather than supporting them to improve. Evolution, not revolution, is how the curriculum and assessment review is described by Professor Becky Francis. Like many of my colleagues across the country, I agree that it is well-intentioned, but I am disappointed that it doesn’t seize the opportunity for deeper, structural reform. Without more radical reform, the system risks reproducing the same inequalities and pressures within an updated framework. Should the real question have been not what changes need to be made, but whether the government can afford to make these changes?
MATHS ANXIETY: TOPPLING THE BIGGEST
BARRIER TO MATHS SUCCESS Comment by SIMON BROADLEY, Founder of
0Maths.co.uk M
ost teachers say maths anxiety is the biggest barrier to maths success. It triggers a fight, flight or freeze response just as if a giant spider appeared suddenly on the desk. Working memory - pupils’ ability to hold and process numbers in their head - is reduced. This can leave pupils “feeling stupid” and lead to more maths anxiety. It widens the attainment gap - pupils growing up in poverty are four times more liable to be maths anxious than their better-off peers. Children with SEND, or who’ve been absent, are also likely to be more affected. Therapeutic interventions can produce quick results but the benefits fade, with pupils typically back at their pre-therapy level of maths anxiety 8-12 weeks later. To reduce maths anxiety in the long term, we have to rethink what happens in maths tasks. This is why we designed 0Maths, software that embeds anxiety-reducing principles into daily practice. We want pupils to approach tasks with the aim of wanting to learn something (ie a learning orientation), rather than just to prove they’re good at maths (performance orientation). Regular timed tasks and league tables lead pupils firmly in the wrong direction, towards a performance orientation. Marks out of 10 are also unhelpful, because, even without league tables, pupils tend to compare marks. Feedback should include only the information that benefits the pupil. There’s only one thing a pupil needs to know: this answer you’ve been working on is now correct. We rarely need to tell them
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when their answer is wrong. The point is that a wrong answer should never be an endpoint. Most mistakes can be overcome with a little perseverance. People learn more from feedback about success than feedback about failure, particularly in numeracy. This right or not-yet-right approach has other advantages. Allowing mistakes means we give pupils space to experiment with new strategies. It also means we engage with personal difficulties and overturn wrong learning, or we can flag a knowledge gap. Beyond reducing maths anxiety itself, we also need to minimise its impact on progress. Scaffolding helps here. From the age of 7 or 8, maths success is linked to the ability to manipulate images mentally - an ability reduced by maths anxiety. Therefore, illustrations and physical or virtual manipulatives can greatly help. It is also important that pupils know when they’re winning. For example, a 2 digit × 2 digit long multiplication question needs up to 18 digits written down. A mistake with any of them means the final answer is wrong. Making sure they’re right along the way reassures them and provides a satisfying dopamine hit to keep them going for the long slog until they reach the answer.
Whether you are using 0Maths or another approach, you urgently need to address maths anxiety. It’s an academic issue, a wellbeing issue, and even a behaviour issue. Reducing maths anxiety will improve both attainment and inclusivity.
December 2025
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