Tes News podcast: Labour Party conference special

This week on the Tes News podcast, the team reflect on what we learned at the Labour Party conference and discuss the key education policies announced.

On Wednesday, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson announced Labour’s focus on early years and primary school maths as conference season came to a close.

We also heard about Labour’s plans to ”encourage stronger lifelong numeracy” by upskilling primary school teachers to teach “real world” maths.

It follows last week’s Conservative Party conference, which targeted post-16 reforms through the creation of a new qualification, the Advanced British Standard.

Join Tes’ joint news editor, Charlotte Santry, and news reporter, Matilda Martin, speaking from the Labour conference, with special guest, former Department for Education adviser David Thomas.

News from the Labour Party conference:

• Teachers ‘must be protected from policy pendulum swings’
• Labour ready for ‘fight’ over RAAC and private school taxes
• Labour still ‘working on’ how to recruit 6,500 more teachers
• Phillipson wants to turn around tutoring ‘disaster’
• Labour won’t fix ‘broken’ teacher recruitment, ex-DfE adviser warns
• Labour: ‘Dreaded’ Ofsted inspections ‘ineffective’
• DfE must drop Gibb ‘mindset’ under Labour, Blunkett warns
• Labour plans ‘real world’ maths teaching in primary
• Primary school nurseries to expand under Labour plan

Here’s what else schools need to know this week:

• Pupil absence spikes despite attendance drive
• Heads query ‘usefulness’ of Oak as curriculum unveiled
• Ofsted: Sir Martyn Oliver confirmed as next chief
• PE ‘enjoyment gap’ for girls is widening, new study warns
• Phonics attainment up but still below pre-pandemic levels
• Sats 2023: Slow progress in reading and writing after Covid