A UNICEF report in 2013 on the 29 most wealthy countries placed the United Kingdom as lowest in terms of children aged 15 to 19 remaining in education. Although, since then, there have been legislative changes to the ages of compulsory education in the UK, it is a telling comparison. It is particularly compelling when contrasted with our PISA scores from that timeframe, which were in the middle of the group of 29 countries. This raises the question of why – if our students are doing so well academically – are they not choosing to continue with academic study? There is apparently a significant number of students disaffected with education. Disaffection with mathematics, in particular, is distinctly evident even in the adult population; given the large proportion of people who respond to any mention of mathematics with ‘I’m not a maths person’ or the prevailing cultural idea of mathematics as a tedious fact of life that must be endured. Lewis (2015, p. 9) describes disaff
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