Right - Primary aged girls and Maths

If you google there is absolutely loads on the topic, catkisser.

There is also this interesting thing that if they told girls that maths was hard, before a maths test, they did worse than if nothing was said. A lot of the articles talk about confidence. I think it's more complex than that but I would absolutely refute the idea that girls are "wired" to be poor at maths while boys are "wired" to be good at it. And even, EVEN, if there was a difference on average (nature/nurture) then acting on that basis is unfair on all of those boys & girls who do not fit the mould.

Children should be given the opportunities and encouragement to try everything, find out what they like and have aptitude for, irrespective of whether it fits a stereotype. Boys who don't fit the stereotype have a bad time also, it's no good for anyone.

But isn't it the same in reverse for boys and literacy?

Isn't it seen as fine for boys to be behind in reading and writing (by their parents) because they're boys?

Well my children are little, one in infants one just started juniors.
I love maths and took my study a reasonably long way and have always talked to them about how interesting it is etc. I would far rather sit down with them and teach them some maths / write some problems for them than read to them.

They both say they love maths and they are good at it - so far! I have also told them about family members who are good at maths and the jobs we do because of it and why they are good jobs.

I'm probably heinously neglecting geography or something but what can you do!

The idea that they might get squashed down in a subject which there is a lot of family doing (so they might be able to do too IYSWIM), and leads into good jobs, and is a really enjoyable satisfying thing to do, makes me sad really.

When people say maths is dull I have to grind my teeth! Lots of men think maths is dull / difficult too though - aren't they saying that to their sons?

I volunteer at a primary school working with yrs 4,5&6 supporting numeracy

Dd 1 is currently yr 8

I don't find the top groups to be boy heavy at all and the groups requiring additional support are a 50/50 split

In dd's year, 8 children got level 6 maths, 5 of them were boys so not totally skewed -the overall top mark went to a girl

Ours is very much a middle class school -is that what makes the difference possibly?

Seven, I think it was Japan, I've heard it before so I don't think you dreamed it!

hmm tried googling and can't find out which countries maths is a "girls" subject in, sorry.

Hope I didn't make it up

When I was a teacher I didn't find that girls weren't as high achieving. In fact if anything the girls performed better across the board.

I did get the impression though that girls were expected by other teachers to be better at literacy and that whilst girls were generally expected to knuckle under, if a boy "engaged" it was encouraged to a higher degree.

Add that to the general belief that people are either intuitive (literacy and art) or logical (maths and science) and that many parents most definitely have a gendered view of these things and you have a gap already.

My dd is 8 and is good at maths but she doubts herself and thinks she can't do it. We do encourage her and we tell her that she does know.
We spend time doing lots of basics at home and in the car so hopefully something will click eventually.

2008 but relevant

So in some other cultures maths is a "girls" subject and they excel at it and beat the boys.

So tell your mate that maybe.

It's a self fulfilling prophecy. The parents tell the children what they are good at and what they are bad at, and what they should like and what they shouldn't, and that gives children a steer - which some will overcome just by having the sort of personality that shrugs that stuff off a bit or just really liking something or whatever, or still.

I have heard people say to my children "maths is boring isn't it" the same sort of people who say "yuck brocolli" etc etc and I just think why do you say stuff like that? WHY? Grrrrr.

Having said that I'm sure I give my kids lots of cues that I don't even realise I'm giving.

So yes to point 1.

Point 2 dunno. I always liked workbooks and things I do like a good tick and maybe a star at the end that's fairly universal though isn't it? Socialisation / toys - girls boys being more "you do this with this and that's the end of it" whereas boys are more open ended eg lego just build whatever you feel? No idea really. I don't think we can know whether things are nature / nurture in our society as it's so strongly gendered. There is the whole thing that I've forgotten what it's called about noticing things that reinforce what you think and god knows we all have enough preconceptions.

I wish people wouldn't clue kids in about stuff so strongly. Arguably this is a huge part of the whole problem with learning not being "cool" in the UK generally. The adults need to adjust their attitudes.

What age do you teach? I don't think that there is masses of difference in my daughter's class - but she is only reception.