Young children shooting their hands up to answer a question is the enduring image of the primary school classroom. But now it seems that this age-old tradition could soon come to an end, with teachers being advised to pick out children to answer questions.

According to official guidance published today, pupils should be asked to discuss answers in pairs and be given “thinking time” before having to respond. The guidance also says that mothers should get mathematics tuition to help their children with homework.

The initiatives are an attempt to help the thousands of “invisible children” who excel in school at 7, but fall behind in key subjects such as English and maths, by the time they are 11.

There are now about 37,000 pupils described as “slow moving” in English and about 75,000 in mathematics. Although these pupils reach the targets that they are set at age 7, or Key Stage 1, they fail to reach the nationally expected level 4 by the age of 11, when they do their Key stage 2 curriculum tests.

It is a far cry from Cider with Rosie, in which Laurie Lee recalls being told to “Sit there for the present” on his first day at primary school and went home empty-handed and miserable.

However, in Keeping up – pupils who fall behind in Key Stage 2, the first of ten progress reports, government advisers say that the “quiet and undemanding” types who happily let others answer questions risk falling behind.

Val McGregor, who taught English for 20 years, and led the research, said that often the children “did not want to be hassled”. She said: “In their cases, the hands-up approach doesn’t work because they find strategies not to take risks and wait till most hands have gone up before putting their own up. Teachers not only end up picking the first, but have no means of telling whether they have understood what they’ve learnt.”

The Government insists that it is not banning hands up in class, but says that this “passive inclusion” means that children do not learn to express themselves aloud, so fail to do so later on paper.

Good teachers, the report says, pair children and use several to start and finish answers, but also a foster an atmosphere of risk where pupils learn by getting things wrong.

The report highlights the importance of parental support and how pupils whose parents show less interest make slower progress. However, the researchers also found that in maths pupils complained that their mothers were unable to help them and when they did they often used different methods of calculation.

To tackle this problem, Ms McGregor said, schools should offer workshops specifically for mothers, who otherwise would send along the fathers. “Schools should try and break the cycle with single-sex sessions. The mothers would be much happier with this and they would do better by their children,” she said.

The researchers spoke to hundreds of struggling pupils and their teachers in 39 schools. A picture emerges of “invisible children”, who are well behaved, avoid the limelight and, in the case of boys, are often keen to answer but are unlikely to think first.

Others work in their comfort zone, having learnt the basics at the age of 7, but cannot apply the knowledge they have to more conceptual learning. These children prefer routine, work neatly and do not like answering questions in front of the class.

Boys, who often lag behind in English, say that they read for pleasure but cannot name a favourite book. Girls, who struggle with maths, often cannot do mental arithmetic.

Publishing the report, Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, said that it gave teachers classroom strategies that worked. “Clear evidence about what works will help teachers to drive up individual attainment,” he said. “This is part of an approach to learning that enables teachers to achieve exactly what they want – the best for every child in their class.”

Francis Gilbert, a secondary school English teacher and author of The New School Rules, said that he often used paired talking in class to get pupils to talk, but also used hands up. But he objected to more government teaching initiatives. “This is yet more micro-managing of schools,” he said.

“We can do our job perfectly well and a good teacher has a load of strategies to draw on. Sometimes it’s great when boys put their hands up and say what comes into their heads. It starts the discussions off.”

From old school to new school
— Traditional blackboards with screeching chalk have been replaced by whiteboards and overhead projectors
— Primary school slates for practising handwriting have been replaced by computers and the exercise book
— Desks with inkwells, drawers and pencil holders have become flat-topped tables with stacking plastic chairs
— Gowns and mortarboards worn by teachers have been replaced by bare-midriffs, trainers and jeans
— Corporal punishment and caning have disappeared in place of detention and suspension or expulsion
— Free fruit and water is supplied instead of milk
— Steak and kidney and jam roly-poly have turned into healthy salads and pasta dishes and packed lunches
— Chanting times tables aloud has been largely discontinued
— Playing conkers in the playground has been banned on safety grounds by many headteachers
— Slide rules and abacuses have been replaced by calculators

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