Responding to a new thematic report by Estyn on the quality of maths education across Wales, Laura Doel, national secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT Cymru, said:

“Estyn’s report rightly highlights the importance of high-quality teaching, curriculum design and leadership in raising standards.

“However, it also exposes significant challenges. Chief among these is the worsening recruitment and retention crisis, which is making it increasingly difficult for schools to appoint and retain specialist mathematics teachers — fundamentally undermining the delivery of the subject. This inevitably affects pupils in those schools affected, despite schools’ best efforts to mitigate the situation.

“In addition, the Welsh Government’s review of the ‘middle-tier’ school improvement consortia highlighted a lack of support for schools when it comes to subject specialisms.

“While there are of course many dedicated, talented maths teachers in Welsh schools, as Estyn’s report highlights, the quality of teacher training courses for maths is described as ‘too variable’.

“We echo the report’s call for professional learning and good practice sharing, but stress this must be backed by adequate funding. Schools need capacity and resources to release staff for training and collaboration if we are to improve outcomes for pupils across Wales.

“More broadly, the recruitment and retention crisis is impacting all types of school, and other subjects too, and turning this around requires sustained investment to continue to reverse real-terms cuts to pay over the last decade, reduce workload and restore teaching as an attractive proposition.”