In 2022 the government invested £560 million in a new programme called Multiply. The intention was to encourage adults to develop confidence and skills in numeracy because:
“People who improve their numeracy skills are more likely to be in employment, have higher wages, and better wellbeing, and will be more able to progress to higher levels of free training to secure a skilled job in our economy.” – education hub blog
That all probably seems a bit heavy, but the truth is that we are all surrounded by numbers every day and the ability to manage household finances or help children with their homework can make a big difference to a person’s wellbeing and personal situation.
YMCA Derbyshire was one of the many providers chosen to deliver Multiply courses across Derbyshire and Derby city, but what is delivered and how is completely up to the provider as long as it can make a difference to numeracy confidence and build maths skills. This is where the creativity of our team comes in. How do you make maths something people want to engage with? Believe it or not, it’s harder than it sounds…
Having delivered the programme now for a couple of years we have been able to ask people how they feel about maths before and after the courses and see if there has been a change in their opinion. From these pre session questions we know that the reason many don’t have a Level 2 (GCSE C Grade or higher) in maths comes down to two common simple answers; I hate it and/or it terrifies me. Why do so many people hate maths? Why is it so frightening?
From talking to our participants, we find that often the reason they feel this way comes from a bad experience at school. They may have felt embarrassed asking for help on something they didn’t understand, or the way it was explained to them didn’t make sense and another way of explaining the same concept would have worked in their case. The education system is challenging to work in, often teachers see hundreds of students a week and have limited time and resources making it impossible to devote individual attention to those who might be struggling with understanding something. This means so many people can slip through the cracks and it isn’t that they are incapable of using the numeracy skills, they just need someone to take the time to explain it and support them working through it. These people aren’t going to choose to take a maths course because they are afraid that they will have the same bad experience from school and have convinced themselves that ‘they CAN’T do maths’, giving up before they even try.
At YMCA Derbyshire we believe that the best way to work on maths is often not to mention it much. ‘Stealthy maths’ as we fondly call it involves fun and practical activities with hidden maths included. We also create activities designed around other interests and hobbies and custom design workshops for specific groups to connect with something they are already taking part in. This could be craft activities, themed events (including fantasy, history and seasonal), maths treasure hunts, cycle or motorcycle sessions, wellbeing, money management, employability skills and our popular escape room. Because our activities are filled with puzzles and games people enjoy taking part and engage with the maths concepts, developing confidence which helps them turn the fear of numeracy into an understanding that they ‘CAN do maths’ and that it doesn’t have to be something they avoid.
