This slim volume, developed from materials produced for a distance learning package, provides an overview of the content of primary maths and some advice on pedagogy. It is not a stand-alone text: readers need to have access to several other documents, notably the national curriculum and the Numeracy Strategy Framework. But even thus armed it is unlikely that this guide would provide the “secure subject knowledge” and “understanding of learning” that it promises.

Typically, an overview of the national curriculum is dealt with in less than two pages, by the end of which the reader is expected to understand its structure, types of planning and the nature and role of attainment targets.

While the content of the National Numeracy Strategy is linked to chapters on each of the maths attainment targets, the balance does not reflect the content of the strategy Framework. For example, one of the cornerstones of the strategy is the teaching and learning of effective and efficient mental calculation strategies, but the two pages on multiplication and division deal only with written methods.

If used in a group, with tutor support, then the activities might lead towards the stated objectives, but I fear that the lone student would gain little from working through this guide.

MA