Come with me to the Year 5 Mathematics Programme of Study for England, where we read that pupils should be taught to ...
"know and use the vocabulary of prime numbers, prime factors and composite (non- prime) numbers"
This was clearly written by someone who doesn't!
'Composite number' is not synonymous with 'non-prime number'.
A composite number is a positive integer with two or more factors greater than 1.
So, composite numbers are: 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, ...
The error in the National Curriculum is to overlook the fact that 1 is NOT a composite number. Of course, it is not a prime number either. So, 1 is the only integer that is neither prime nor composite.
OK, so it is only a small error. But it is still embarrassing to have a mathematical error in our National Curriculum: to add to all the pedagogical errors.
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