Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Labour plans for ‘real world’ primary school maths don't add up, unions say
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson speaking during the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, October 11, 2023

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.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
UNRECOGNISED POTENTIA:L: Girl students conduct an experiment by throwing cotton balls to demonstrate the instinctive reaction of flinching at The Big Bang Fair 2025, for young scientists and engineers, at the NEC in Birmingham on June 18 2025
Science and Society / 16 July 2025
16 July 2025

What’s behind the stubborn gender gap in Stem disciplines ask ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT in their column Science and Society


Pupils in a classroom
NEU Conference 2025 / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025