Two-thirds of mums lack confidence in maths and half are worried about the impact of school lockdown on their children’s progress, survey shows

New research from online maths platform, Numerise, shows that nearly half of mums are worried that lockdown has had a negative impact on their child’s performance in maths, and a third fear their children may never catch up.

A third of respondents also said their child had not had access to any extra maths support since returning to school, with the same proportion unclear about their school’s plans to close the gap. Two-thirds of mums have had no information about the government’s catch up tutoring programme.

The survey of 2,000 mothers and female carers of children aged 11–16 years was carried out in early October to find out how they feel about maths, and how lockdown had affected their children’s confidence and progress in the subject this academic year. The research focused on mums’ attitudes after studies showed three quarters of mums had taken the lead in home schooling.

It found that two-thirds of mothers and female carers in England lacked confidence in maths and were concerned about their ability to help their children. Despite mums being most likely to help their children with maths homework (70%), two-fifths said they feel anxious doing so.

Low confidence also left a third of mothers dreading doing maths in everyday life, while a quarter admitted to pretending to know more about the subject than the reality.

Colin Hegarty, Director of Education for Numerise and founder of the maths platform HegartyMaths, said: “With mums being the most likely person to help children with their homework, parents should feel empowered, confident and capable of supporting children’s maths practice. To improve the situation, we need to build a new, maths-confident generation.

“Encouraging children to practise maths and see it as an achievable goal is vital. However, with their own low confidence and with anxiety around the impact of lockdown on their children’s maths abilities, mums are unsure where to turn.”

Forty per cent of respondents reported that their child also suffered from low maths confidence, and a third said their children had expressed anxiety about maths to their parents. Such concerns often led to tension at home, with a quarter of mums admitting that maths homework causes friction, and a fifth saying that it can even lead to arguments.