Page proofs arrived! Fourth edition and workbook.

The page proofs for the fourth edition of Mathematics Explained for Primary Schools are now here with me in Norwich. It's always an exciting day when the page proofs arrive and you see what the new book is going to look like. The publisher (Sage), the designers and the typesetters have done a brilliant job: the layout looks most attractive. It's not for me to comment on the content!

I also have the page proofs for the Student Workbook which will come out at the same time as the fourth edition. This is a new venture, in which I have been helped by Ralph Manning at UEA Norwich. It will be interesting to see how well it gets taken up. We trialled the material with the PGCE primary trainees at UEA – they were very enthusiastic and gave lots of helpful feedback. The workbook provides tasks related to the mathematical content of the main textbook, chapter by chapter. There are tasks that are used to check your understanding; tasks to get experience of using and applying mathematical skills and concepts; and tasks that focus on the learning and teaching of mathematics.

The hiccup in the legislation for the new primary national curriculum (see my previous post) does not cause us too many problems for the fourth edition. Our plan is to make the links with both the current primary national curriculum, the proposed new primary curriculum and the level descriptions on the website that will support the fourth edition. The new book will certainly take into account some of the emphases in the proposed new curriculum for Mathematical Understanding, with some new material reflecting the way in which primary mathematics is developing in the 21st century, such as more ICT-based graphical content.