City MP Stephen Morgan has backed Labour’s landmark new plan to encourage stronger lifelong numeracy by boosting “real world” maths teaching at primary school.
After thirteen years of Conservative governments, 29% of pupils in Portsmouth South and 32% of pupils in Portsmouth North are not reaching the expected standard in maths by the end of primary school. Labour’s plan will set children up with basic, practical maths skills to help them achieve at secondary school, at work and throughout life.
Announcing the plan at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool, Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said that Labour’s plan will centre on upskilling primary school teachers who are not maths teachers to deliver high class maths teaching through the Teacher Training Entitlement, paid for through Labour’s plans to end private schools’ tax breaks.
The Shadow Education Secretary said it would also task its Curriculum Review with bringing maths to life and directing teachers to show children how numeracy is used in the world around them, such as through household budgeting, currency exchange rates when going on holiday, sports league tables and cookery recipes.
The party said this would include bringing elements of financial literacy into maths teaching, such as using examples of calculating credit card interest to teach children about percentages.
Labour will also work with nurseries to develop trained ‘Maths champions’ who can support early learning in childcare settings, ensuring children are set up for school. Independent evaluations show “Maths Champions” can boost learning with three months’ extra progress.
Labour’s plan aims to create a stark dividing line with the Prime Minister’s intention to force young people to learn maths until 18, a move which Phillipson called a “half-baked, short-term gimmick to grab headlines that showed education wasn’t a priority for the Conservatives”.
In response, Phillipson said she intended to turn Rishi Sunak’s Maths to 18 working group into a primary working group to “develop the maths equivalent to phonics”.
The party said its plan would aim to tackle the growing gaps in early maths attainment that lead to falling engagement and to children falling further behind as they grow up. The party cited evidence showing that that one in four children across England was already behind expected levels by age 5.
Ministers have sought to avoid thorough evaluation of the effectiveness of current programmes; Labour said that its plans would ensure that money was being directed towards programmes that have the greatest impact on children’s learning.
The party pointed to the achievements of the work started by the last Labour Government on phonics, laying the basis for a policy which has improved the reading ability of children throughout their time at school, as a template for its plans for primary maths.
Commenting, Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan said:
“Maths is the language of the universe, the underpinning of our collective understanding of the world. We must give children the strongest foundation in primary school.
“That’s why as part of our plans to reform primary maths teaching we will turn the Maths to 18 working group into a primary working group to develop the maths equivalent to phonics, which the last Labour government introduced and which has transformed children’s literacy.
“Labour is, and always has been, the party of high and rising standards: our revolutionary plans for maths will give young people in Portsmouth foundations for work and life and break down barriers to opportunity.”
