Do they still teach you how to use a slide rule at school?
You must be joking Dick, even most young teachers wouldn't know what one looks like! I still have my British Thornton scientific one from the early 70's.
The standard of maths in UK state schools is little short of dire. You would be horrified to see a GCSE Higher Paper, formulas printed in there and calculators allowed on one paper. The Foundation paper is a joke with "express 3/4 as a percentage" or "what bus must I catch in order to be at Auntie Vi's at 16:00 going via A and B"?
I was invigilating a GCSE maths exam about 2 years ago and it had a distance, speed, time with a conversion question in it. Of the 250 pupils sitting it I reckon only 10% had got it right, another 10% failed to convert and the rest and no idea.
Back on the thread, the maths required for PPL is not that demanding, d,s,t volume to mass conversions and some basic mental sums as you are going to have to do this while flying the aircraft at times.