London's brightest maths pupils need more support, expert warns

Maths is key to London’s economic future but more needs to be done to support the brightest pupils, the head of the capital’s only maths sixth form said today.

Dan Abramson, head teacher of the state-funded King’s Maths School, said mathematical skills were “increasingly important” in the modern world.

He said recent changes to working cultures boosting the significance of data meant businesses increasingly “need to go back to the numbers”.

Maths is now the most popular A-level subject amid a shift towards tough subjects seen as a route into university and the workplace.

“Having that capacity to reason quantitatively and be deductive and careful in your thinking is increasingly important in the modern world,” he said.

“That’s what business is saying, but not just business, it’s broader than that... Mathematics is applied so broadly now that in our economy, having highly skilled mathematicians would have a significant impact.”

Mr Abramson, a Cambridge-educated mathematician, welcomed the shift but said there were still thousands of pupils across the capital in need of support.

His school, which has its first A-level results tomorrow, recruits the brightest maths students from across London to focus on maths and related subjects including physics, economics and computer science.

“We are still a drop in the ocean. There’s thousands of students in London who need to know maths and need to have a level of numeracy and understanding about that sort of reductive thinking,” he said.

Mr Abramson said the numbers suggested the best maths students in London were not getting sufficient support. Maths attainment was lower in central London state schools than in the rest of the country, even though the capital generally outperforms educationally.