The activists who trooped to London's Connaught Rooms on a wet Saturday applauded the traditionalist elements of David Cameron's address, such as the return of competitive school sport and a ban on calculators inprimaryschoolmaths tests.
Inmaths and science boys and girls perform much the same at primaryschool, but at age 15 boys do rather better than girls inmaths (though not science).
Under-achievement is seen at primaryschool, where national tests inmaths and English show both groups are less likely than others to reach the expected level, and continues up to GCSE level and beyond.
"There is nothing particularly new in the idea of primaryschool teachers requiring more maths subject knowledge, " said general secretary Christine Blower.