More than a third of Scottish children cannot spell basic words or add up without a calculator by the time they leave primary school, a study has suggested.

The research, by online tuition firm mytutor.co.uk, questioned 130 students and their parents across Scotland and a total of 1,000 ten-12 year olds across the UK as a whole. The study discovered that 42 per cent couldn't spell the word 'secretaries' correctly, 25 per cent couldn't multiply seven by six and 31 per cent couldn't pick the correct use of an apostrophe, the Scotsman reports.

"Maths and English are key skills for children as they enter secondary school, yet our study shows that many are already slipping behind their peers and could be lacking confidence," Nick Smith, Head of mytutor.co.uk stated. "Despite half of parents thinking their children aren't as good as they were at the same age, most parents only manage to spend fewer than ten minutes a day reading with them, helping them with homework or doing educational activities at home."

Despite raising questions over the standard of teaching in Scotland, ministers and counsellors have dismissed the results. David Cameron, an Education Consultant and Former Director of Education at Stirling Council commented: "My message would be that this is a relatively small survey and far from definitive. Clearly, every time something like this comes along it's important not to panic. There is significant evidence already available from the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) testing and external assessments that shows the position is better than what is being reported here."

The Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA) defended modern teaching methods, with the General Secretary Ann Ballinger stating that "there is absolutely wonderful work going on in primary schools."

She said: "Nowadays we have spell checks and calculators at our beck and call, it's not necessarily true that young people would learn these [literacy and numeracy] skills because they don't need to, but that doesn't mean they're not intelligent. We don't learn by rote anymore and I think that's a good thing. Now children understand the process. It may take them slightly longer, but they still know how to do it."

"The situation in schools is nothing like what this report is suggesting, which makes me think there's something badly wrong with the survey. Numeracy and literacy levels are improving and there's absolutely no reason to think the situation is as bad as is being suggested."

The importance of how schools and families work together was highlighted in a 2010 survey by Teacher Support Network and Family Lives (formerly Parentline Plus.) The survey and subsequent report, 'Beyond the school gate' discussed how a child's wellbeing and attainment at school is directly linked to how schools and parents communicate.

Many staff questioned agreed that although strong parent-teacher relations are vital, often time constraints and ineffective home-school communications do not allow for "successful engagement."

To read 'Beyond the school gate' in full, click here.

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