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Here's the Mancunian Way for today:
Hello,
The news that teenagers could be learning some form of Maths until adulthood will strike fear in the hearts of many who struggled with the subject - myself included.
Decades after sitting beneath strip lighting on a staticky carpet, gazing at the blackboard, I can still feel the waves of number-related horror wash over me.
In truth, my maths lessons were spent with furrowed brow, scraping through and sulking. And I only ever used my compass to scratch ‘I heart Backstreet Boys’ into a tin pencil case.
I did actually pass my GCSE Maths, but there were plenty of tears along the way. There is no way I would have thrived had the sorry ordeal carried on past high school.
But the Prime Minister’s announcement, that all pupils in England will study some form of Maths until the age of 18, will no doubt cause even greater anxiety for teachers. Already dealing with a staffing crisis and myriad issues - from special educational needs, to how to feed children - they’re unlikely to be soothed by Mr Sunak’s announcement.
And in the midst of an NHS crisis, you could be forgiven for thinking it's a bit of a ‘dead cat’.
I’ve been speaking to one of Greater Manchester’s headteachers about Mr Sunak’s plan and we’ll be discussing that in today’s newsletter.
We’ll also be looking at what’s going on with the old Debenhams building in town and a number of other city centre sites primed for development.
A silver bullet?
Rishi Sunak’s plan for all pupils in England to study some form of Maths until 18 is a ‘really positive ambition’ but is unrealistic in the current climate, a Greater Manchester headteacher has said.
And Glyn Potts, of Newman RC College, in Oldham, says the Prime Minister’s announcement lacks detail and doesn’t address the vast shortage of maths teachers currently facing schools.
The Prime Minister outlined a new mission to combat high rates of innumeracy in England during a speech in London today. “In a world where data is everywhere and statistics underpin every job, our children’s jobs will require more analytical skills than ever before, and letting our children out into the world without those skills is letting our children down,” he said.
Details are scant, but Mr Sunak said the plan would not mean a compulsory A-level for maths for everyone and may not be achieved in this Parliament.
Education experts said the policy does not address major problems in the wider education system.
Mr Potts told The Mancunian Way there are, frankly, more pressing issues facing schools post-pandemic.
“There is no detail so we don’t know how it is going to be done,” he said. “And then you’ve got to think that these are the kids who have had the most disturbed period of education since World War Two.
“It’s not one of my educational silver bullets.”
He adds: “I don’t see where this announcement fits in. I firmly believe maths makes a difference in children’s lives but so does Art and P.E. and English.”
Schools across the country are currently facing huge challenges with recruitment. Department for Education figures show targets for recruiting maths teachers into Initial Teacher Training (ITT) have not been met for several years.
Just 65 per cent of the maths teacher target was met for the school year 2019/20, followed by 84 per cent for 2020/2021 and 90 per cent for 2021/2022. Although the shortfall gap has been closing over the four years, the targets themselves have been reduced.
Mr Potts says schools can’t recruit Maths teachers ‘for love nor money’ as salaries have not kept pace with other jobs.
“If you have got a maths degree why would you go into education? And it’s not necessarily about pay, it’s about conditions.
“If KPMG will pick you up after a degree, you’ll have a nice office, a laptop. When you finish work each day, you’ll really be finished. In education the conditions are poor, salaries are still less than in industry and you get slurs from government ministers about education. Why would you go into that environment?”
Mr Sunak says he sees ‘no reason’ why ‘we cannot rival the best education systems in the world’. But Glyn says there is already an ‘opportunity gap’ in classrooms and a huge divide separating those in the North and those in the South.
He says: “If we’re running 100m everyone should be at the same starting point. But they’re not. Some are running in school shoes and others are running in trainers.
“I want our pupils to do maths, but at the moment, we’re feeding them, and that’s more important.”
Want more maths?
Writer Kieran Isgin has compiled a frustratingly tricky maths quiz so you can test your skills.
Well, I found it frustrating. If you’re one of those people who boasts about completing the difficult sudokus you’ll have no trouble at all.
'Letting the city down'
The redevelopment of one of Manchester city centre’s most prominent buildings could be stalled unless developers clean it up.
The Grade II-listed Rylands building, on Market Street, has been empty since the Debenhams store closed in May 2021. AM alpha is working on plans to extend the site and create a shopping arcade, restaurants and offices, with Russell WBHO expected to begin work next year.
But Councillor Pat Karney says the graffiti-scrawled building is the 'scruffiest' in town and last month accused owners of being ‘jackasses’ who have ‘let the city down’.
He told reporter Stephen Topping: “Work is due to start on the building in 2023 and the agent will be seeking meetings with the city council's highways and planning officials. These meetings will not take place until they clean up the building.
"I will be calling them in next week so they can tell us why they have let the city down."
The council says they were last month offered ‘numerous assurances’ the frontage of Debenhams would be cleaned up. “We are very disappointed that this has not happened and we will be urgently contacting the building’s agent,” a spokesman said.
A credit to the city centre
Speaking of the city centre, here’s a new image showing how the Central Retail Park could look.
The Government has expressed interest in the dilapidated site, on Great Ancoats Street, as a Civil Service hub and Manchester Council hopes it will become a ‘flagship, highly sustainable development’ providing 8,000 jobs and new retail sites.
There are also plans to create a new green space, known as ‘The Garden’, linking it to New Islington.
Council leader Bev Craig says: “At the heart of our proposals is a green public space that will create a link between Great Ancoats and New Islington Marina for the first time, helping to celebrate Cotton Field Park behind. We want this to be a truly valuable investment to Manchester’s regeneration programme and a credit to the city centre.”
A public consultation into the plans is now open.
An intense journey
Elsewhere in town, The Corn Exchange has a new owner.
The leisure complex and apart-hotel has been disposed of by Aviva Investors after it was put on the market for around £43m in May last year, as North West Business Editor Jon Robinson reports. The identity of the buyer and the value of the deal have not yet been disclosed.
Will Andrews of KLM Real Estate, which secured the deal, said Aviva took the building on an ‘intense journey’.
"They did an amazing job to take it from something that was not really working to an absolutely prime leisure location. They created a space that the people of Manchester want to be in,” he said.
Big plans
New towers, a groundbreaking arena and lots of homes are on the horizon for Manchester in 2023.
As we begin the new year, reporters Joseph Timan and Ethan Davies have been looking at the city’s construction boom.
Among the developments set to change the face of the city is Co-op Live - a vast music venue due to open in December. The 23,500-seat stadium, next to the Etihad, will be home to ‘100 nights of music’ every year.
Co-op’s 4 Angel Square is also on the horizon, with the 200,000 sq ft office facility set to operate on a 100 per cent renewable energy supply.
A development on First Street, will comprise a 45-storey tower with 5,000 bedrooms, while work on Victoria North’s 15,000 new homes and Great Jackson Street’s ‘Blade’ building are well underway.
You can take a look at the interesting developments in the works here.
Highs, lows and everything in between
Waterloo Road star Katie Griffiths says the show is set to discuss the daily struggles people are facing in Britain.
The award-winning BBC drama, about a comprehensive school in Greater Manchester, has been rebooted eight years after its original run ended in 2015, with Griffiths returning as Chlo Grainger and Adam Thomas as her teenage sweetheart Donte Charles.
She told The One Show: “There’s mental health discussed, there’s child homelessness, cost-of-living crisis, all of these terrible struggles that people are facing on a daily basis.
“So it’s going to have a lot of drama, it’s going to be a lot of highs, lows and everything in between in classic Waterloo Road style.”
The reboot is part of the BBC’s commitment to make more programmes across the UK to better reflect, represent and serve all parts of the country.
Katie Griffiths has spoken exclusively to reporter Phoebe Jobling about the show’s return here.
Weather etc
- Thursday: Cloudy changing to light rain by late morning. 11C.
- Road closures: A5181 Mosley Road, Trafford Park, in both directions closed due to gas main work between A5081 Village Way and Westinghouse Road until January 6.
- Trains: Only one train per hour runs 8.30am to 4.30pm on Avanti West Coast between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly due to strike action Jan 3 to 7.
- Trams: Service only running between 7am and 6pm on Manchester Metrolink between Altrincham and Timperley due to strike action on the national rail network on Jan 3 and 4. This line shares track with the national rail network thus services are unable to operate.
Manchester headlines
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Petition: The daughter of a victim of notorious serial rapist Andrew Barlow says her mother still has nightmares three decades on - and has panic alarms around her house - after he broke in and attacked her. She has launched a petition to keep Barlow - formerly Andrew Longmire - behind bars. He was given multiple life sentences in October 1988 after being convicted of 11 rapes; three attempted rapes; indecent assault; and using a firearm to resist arrest. His tariff was fixed at 20 years. In the decades that followed, Barlow was linked to more offending, as two previously unsolved cases were cracked. He is due for release this month.
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Stuck: The number of patients in hospitals who do not need to be there across Greater Manchester has been revealed. Taking the course of a single day as a snap-shot, 936 patients were classed by the NHS as 'no longer meeting the criteria to reside'. But just a fraction of that amount - 122 - were discharged over the course of December 25 up until midnight, leaving the majority remaining in hospital taking up beds for those who were desperately sick and urgently needed them. More here.
- Closed: A failing autism service has closed after being rated ‘inadequate’ for a fourth time. Heywood-based LANCuk provides assessment and treatment for adults and children with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. But it has been in special measures since October 2021. It has been rated 'inadequate' by the Care Quality Commission four times since July 2018 and 'requires improvement' twice. Officials most recently visited the service in November and found it was still ‘inadequate’ and should remain in special measures. However, LANCuk has now closed its ‘pathway’ for Autism and ADHD Assessment. - citing the fact its current contract comes to an end in March 2023. More here.
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Doc: A new ITV documentary is set to reveal the grim reality of life behind the walls of Strangeways prison, in Manchester. The high-security jail, which is known for having housed some of the most dangerous convicts, including serial killers Ian Brady and Harold Shipman will feature in a two-part series about Britain's Notorious Prisons, set to air on January 12 at 9pm on ITV.
Worth a read
From Europe’s largest sewage works to the up-and-coming area that was once described as 'utterly uninhabitable' - Greater Manchester certainly has some unlikely beauty spots.
Damon Wilkinson has put his best foot forward to find some of the regions more unusual walks hidden amongst flyovers, canals and waterways.
As he writes: “They may not have the majesty of Helvellyn or the sweeping views of Kinder Scout, but the rugged edges of Greater Manchester tell a unique story about our city all of their own. And in our eyes at least they're all the better for it.”
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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