The Schools White Paper sets a bold and commendable goal - for 30,000 more disadvantaged children to pass GCSE maths every year, en route to halving the disadvantage gap.

And as sure as 1+1 = 2, whenever such ambitions are raised, the same solution is suggested: the only way more disadvantaged children will succeed in maths is to make it more “real world”.

Are these pupils disengaged? Make lessons more relevant. When their parents ask when their children will ever use algebra? Link it to everyday life. Will such children add to the growing numbers of NEETs (those not in education, employment or training)? Add workplace scenarios to the curriculum.

Why real-life links don’t work

It sounds sensible. But it isn’t.

We understand the impulse behind this, but after years of working across maths education - and listening carefully to employers, teachers, parents and young people - we believe this diagnosis leads to the wrong solution.

The weakness parents and employers describe is real. Recent evidence, including work by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on skills gaps, points to issues with problem-solving and decision-making.

Many young people struggle to work out which information matters, which methods to use, or how to adapt when a task is unfamiliar.

But this is an issue not primarily of relevance, but of thinking mathematically when the route to a solution is not obvious.

Adding more contextualised questions does not automatically build that capability. In some cases, it makes the work harder.

Three key approaches

At Maths Horizons, we believe that closing these gaps depends on three things.

1. Pupils need secure and flexible mathematical knowledge.

That means fluency with key facts and methods, alongside a clear understanding of how ideas fit together. When knowledge is insecure, pupils cannot rely on it. If they have to stop and think about every basic step, their working memory is quickly overloaded.

Adding complex real-world scenarios at that point only adds to the difficulty. Fluency and understanding work together: knowing maths well enough that it feels reliable is what gives pupils the confidence to use it beyond the classroom.

2. Pupils need regular experience of non-routine problem solving - problems where the method isn’t obvious in advance.

This is the part that is very often missing from classroom practice, where problem solving comes at the end of a topic, once a method has just been taught. Pupils know exactly which maths to apply. That is useful practice, but it is not the same as working out how or where to begin for themselves.

Non-routine problems require pupils to choose an approach, test it, adjust it when it doesn’t work, and persist through uncertainty. These experiences build judgement and confidence, but only if pupils encounter them regularly and with success, and not just as an extension task once everything else is complete.

3. Pupils benefit from carefully chosen contexts in which they can use and adapt what they know.

Contexts do matter - they help pupils see how mathematics applies beyond the classroom - but only when pupils have the understanding needed to engage with them, not as the starting point.

When teachers begin with a story about mortgages or recipes before pupils have secure knowledge and experience of non-routine problems, the cognitive demand shifts. Pupils end up focusing on decoding the language rather than reasoning mathematically.

This is especially challenging for pupils with weaker reading skills or those who are learning English as an additional language.

Focus on core knowledge

The curriculum and assessment review is right to place reasoning and problem solving at the centre of the maths curriculum. The risk is that this is interpreted as a call for more contextualisation, rather than for better mathematical thinking.

Reasoning and problem solving are not optional extras; they are not enrichment, and they are not in competition with fluency. When carefully sequenced and grounded in secure knowledge, they strengthen understanding for all pupils.

If we want young people who can tackle unfamiliar problems and use maths with confidence, we need to be honest about what builds that capacity. Making maths feel more “relevant” will not deliver it.

Real-world competence comes from knowing maths well, practising how to think with it when the path is unclear and only then applying that thinking beyond the classroom.

Dr Helen Drury is co-lead at Maths Horizons and Professor Camilla Gilmore is co-lead at Maths Horizons

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