Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson will today
unveil a landmark new plan to encourage stronger lifelong
numeracy by boosting early intervention and “real world” maths
teaching at primary school and a new expert-led review to as part
of its plan to drive “high and rising standards in education”.
Phillipson will set out Labour’s plan, which will set children up
with basic, practical maths skills to help them achieve at
secondary school, at work and throughout life to the party’s
conference on Wednesday.
Labour’s maths plan will centre on upskilling primary school
teachers who are not maths teachers with the right skills and
knowledge to deliver high class maths teaching through the
Teacher Training Entitlement, paid for through Labour’s plans
to end private schools’ tax breaks.
Labour 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 the concept of
Individual Savings Accounts to teach about percentages.
Labour’s focus will be on driving improvements at primary level,
so they will reform Rishi Sunak’s Maths to 18 working group, so
it focuses on primary maths as a first priority and investigates
the maths equivalent to phonics.
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.
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 was already
behind expected levels by age five.
Labour 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.
Phillipson's intervention would also seek to target
deep-rooted problems with childhood numeracy that persist into
adulthood, such as the inability to analyse basic graphs and
calculate the value of supermarket offers.
An OECD estimate from 2016 found that nine million working-age
adults in England have low basic literacy or numeracy skills with
five million having low skills in both areas, while the lack of
basic numeracy skills costs the economy £25bn a year.
, Labour’s Shadow
Education Secretary, is expected to say:
“In every part of our system, in every year of children’s lives,
in every corner of our country, we will be the party of high and
rising standards.
“Maths is the language of the universe, the underpinning of our
collective understanding. It cannot be left till the last years
of school.
“It’s why I’m proud to tell you today, that we’ll tackle our
chronic cultural problem with maths, by making sure it’s better
taught at six, never mind sixteen.
“I am determined that Labour will bring maths to life for the
next generation. I want the numeracy all our young people need –
for life and for work, to earn and to spend, to understand and to
challenge. I want that to be part of their learning right from
the start.
Ends
Notes:
Evaluation of the maths champions programme shows children made
on average three months additional progress: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/maths-champions-effectiveness
One in three Britons is incapable of calculating the change they
should be given in a shop, four out of ten cannot work out the
value of supermarket offers, and fewer than half can understand
the most basic of financial graphs, according to a
report from University College London and Cambridge
University: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5502355/Third-unable-count-change-given-shop.html
The lack of basic numeracy skills costs the UK economy £25bn a
year:https://www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/news/new-survey-uk-numeracy
An OECD estimate from 2016 found that 9 million working-age
adults in England have low basic literacy or numeracy skills with
5 million having low skills in both areas: oecd.org/unitedkingdom/building-skills-for-all-review-of-england.pdf
