LABOUR’S plans to improve primary school maths teaching are better than the Tories’ focus on post-16 education but need more funding, unions said today.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson unveiled her party’s plans to boost “real world” numeracy skills “right from the start” at the Labour conference.

A Labour government would reform the Tories’ Maths-to-18 working group so it focuses on primary maths and investigates the maths equivalent to phonics, upskilling primary school staff’s maths teaching skills through its proposed Teacher Training Entitlement — which will be paid for through Labour’s proposals to end private schools’ tax breaks, the party said.