The Maths Guarantee: A guide for principals

Summary

Download the guide

The easy-to-follow guide complements our April 2025 report, The Maths Guarantee: How to boost students’ learning in primary schools. 

That report showed that one in three Australian school students fail to achieve proficiency in maths, and our top-performing maths students lag far behind the best in the world. 

It called on all state governments, and the Catholic and independent school sectors, to commit to a 10-year Maths Guarantee strategy to transform Australia’s maths performance. 

But primary school principals do not need to wait for others to act. They can take steps right now to improve maths teaching in their classrooms. 

The guide is divided into four sections: 

• Section 1 explains why primary schools should focus on improving maths performance. 
• Section 2 sets out the key elements of an evidence-informed, systematic approach to maths teaching. 
• Section 3 breaks down the key features of a systematic, school-wide approach to maths, including setting aside purposeful time for maths, using shared curriculum materials, and building teacher expertise. 
• Section 4 is a checklist of the key steps principals can take to embed this in their school. 

The guide draws on lessons Grattan’s education experts learnt studying seven schools across Australia that exemplify great practice.  

The schools are: 

• Wattle Grove Primary, a government school in suburban Perth 
• Bentleigh West Primary, a government school in suburban Melbourne 
• Ballarat Clarendon College, an independent school in regional Victoria 
• St Bernard’s Primary, a Catholic school in Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast 
• Charlestown South Public, a government school in Newcastle, NSW 
• The Entrance Public, a government school on the NSW central coast 
• Budgewoi Public, a government school also on the NSW central coast 

Australia has a maths problem, and it starts in primary school. Our guide shows how schools can start to fix it.

^{Photo courtesy of St Bernard’s Primary School and Mel Hill Photography.}