Provision for mathematically promising children in primary schools: a review of practice five years after England dropped the Gifted and Talented Initiative.

After the abandonment of the Gifted and Talented initiative (1999-2010) and the recent changes in England‘s mathematics educational policy (i.e. the new national curriculum and the 'mastery‘ initiative), this small-scale research investigated the current situation in primary schools regarding the education of mathematically promising children who either perform at a higher level or have the potential to do so. The research was a pilot study gathering insights from schools on their practices and teachers‘ views, experiences and perceived needs in order to identify areas that could be improved by the outcomes of a larger-scale research. It involved an online questionnaire distributed in schools within four local authorities in South West England. The findings obtained from 49 schools suggest that despite practitioners‘ interest and efforts in taking educational measures for their ‟most able” mathematicians, the education of children with the potential to excel in mathematics has reached a crucial stage. There is a real need for specialized support and guidance in recognizing and developing mathematical potential; classroom teachers and school leaders are trying to discover by themselves what could enable them to meet the government‘s educational target of achieving 'excellence everywhere‘. This support should have underpinnings from theory and research, preventing our schools from using questionable practices or repeating methods that have failed in the past. This paper highlights areas that require support, raises questions with practical implications and suggests ideas for research that could inform educational policy and benefit school practice.