Different Maths

From time to time the media report a decline in standards, or state that exams are getting easier etc, and there are some who agree and others who refute this every time. I can't comment on that, but I am finding that the modern maths curriculum for keystage 3 is different from what I experienced in my school days.
For a start I don't recall needing a scientific calculator as early as year 7. I'm pretty sure we still had to use primarily mental calculation at that stage. Also I'm sure I did not cover some of the topics the boys are now working on through Conquer Maths, for example statistics. In today's lesson the "sigma" symbol came up (I don't know how to keyboard that!). I don't remember that symbol at all, or other terms used in this topic. I can remember mean and mode, but that's about it! I don't think its just my memory failing, even if I can't remember much about something the keywords will usually jog some distant memory. I think statistics wasn't on the curriculum I followed.
I'm not too worried however! The wonderful ConquerMaths explains it all excellently, so the boys don't often need my less than helpful input on this subject! They work independently through the lessons, alhamdulillah, but if I'm called upon for back up I just watch the lesson myself and take it from there. Sometimes the methods differ from what I learnt at school. I'm pretty clear when it comes to working with percentages for example, but I found my methods were not the same as those on the programme, although I was still getting the same answers (phew).
One thing I'm glad about though is that I followed a maths curriculum through the primary years and built up the boys basic skills and maths knowledge, at a stage when it was all familiar and easy for me too! I think that it is because they have that behind them, alhamdulillah, that they are ready to take on the Conquer Maths independently. The programme does take for granted that you know the basics.
The way I see it the primary maths curriculum is a direct preparation for secondary maths, in a way which does not hold true with most other subjects.
With maths in the primary years I was always (and still am with the girls) plodding and methodical, sometimes repetitive, as the curriculum was just a bit like that. At the time the boys did not like maths too much, but now it has paid off in my opinion, as they enjoy it much more now. Maybe its a bit like learning a foreign language. When you plod through lots of vocab lists and basic sentences it can feel quite dull, but once you can actually speak the language and find yourself really using it, it is so much more enjoyable.
For me having the boys ready to take on unfamiliar maths topics independently through Conquer Maths, means that secondary maths is "doable" at home, even for me as a non-maths person and with a very different looking curriculum. Alhamdulillah.