Tag: numeracy

SQA Insight highlights success for Edinburgh pupils

Edinburgh’s pupils continue to be among the best performing in Scotland

Results from the SQA Insight report shows Edinburgh’s learners are performing better than their virtual comparators in 14 out of 15 key measures,  with 7% more pupils gaining at least one Advanced Higher than in other areas in Scotland.

Edinburgh learners are also out-performing their virtual comparators in Literacy and Numeracy for all stages and levels.

A virtual comparator is a sample of students from other areas of Scotland who have similar characteristics to a school’s students.

The news builds on the SQA exam results in August showing levels of attainment for pupils across Edinburgh remaining above those achieved before the Covid pandemic.

Insight provides teachers and lecturers with a summary of how learners have performed in their exams and coursework for each subject at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher level over the past year.

Councillor Joan Griffiths, Education Convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “This has been another positive year for our pupils. I want to congratulate them, as well as all our teaching and support staff. Their hard work has certainly paid off and praise should go to them as well as all the parents and carers who have supported the children.

“I welcome the results from the SQA Insights report. We have invested heavily in improving the skills of our workforce and I am confident that our staff will continue to improve the quality of teaching and learning to meet the needs of the city’s young people.

“Let’s not forget there is no wrong pathway for our young people as everyone’s learner journey is different. School is about ensuring all our young people are able to fulfil their potential by attaining the highest level of achievements possible and by receiving the best possible experience.

“We want all our learners to find their pathways into the world of higher and further education, employment or training and to narrow the gap between those living in different areas of affluence.”

Course reports – written by principal assessors and principal verifiers – are published to give an insight into how learners performed, detailing which areas of the course assessment where learners performed well, and which areas proved to be more demanding.

Principal assessors and other senior appointees are experienced teachers and lecturers who work with SQA to produce the course reports and highlight examples where candidates have performed well in their external assessments.

The reports also contain advice for teachers, lecturers, and training practitioners on preparing learners for the coming year’s assessments, as well as statistical data relating to grade boundaries.

Maths Week Scotland: “Bring back the abacus – and make maths learning fun”

EdTech entrepreneur responds to calls for Times Tables to be scrapped

An ancient counting tool first used as early as 2,400 BC should be brought back to classrooms if the new UK government decides to scrap times-tables tests, a Scottish business is arguing.

Glasgow-based British Youth International College (BYITC) specialises in teaching maths using the abacus and says the device, which involves sliding beads along a frame to count, can help children perform mathematical calculations faster than a calculator.

Students of the College include 10-year-old Tejas Mittal, who can solve 90 to 100 complex sums mentally in just 60 minutes.

“Instead of memorising numbers – like the multiplications of the times-tables – the abacus teaches children to actually visualise the calculations,” explained Dr Rashmi Mantri, who founded BYITC in 2015 after using an abacus to teach her son basic arithmetic.

“Students are then able to do big calculations mentally without the use of any calculator or paper. The abacus method doesn’t require your child to physically handle one of these ancient instruments. We teach children to visualise the abacus in their heads, then use their fingers to manipulate the imaginary beads.”

The annual Maths Week Scotland takes place from Monday 23rd September, a matter of weeks after news outlets reported that the government might make times-tables tests optional, to simplify the school curriculum.

If this were to become policy in either England or Scotland, abacus maths could be introduced in schools to make maths and arithmetic more fun – and improve learning outcomes, Dr Mantri said.

“Research has shown that abacus learners had 200% better memory than non-abacus learners,” she added.

“Because it’s a visual way of learning – using either a real or a virtual abacus – we find students enjoy it and engage with it more than they might do in a traditional maths lesson. 

“From the thousands of students who learn maths with us, we also believe the abacus method is one of the best confidence-building tools in education. Children who do well at maths tend to have more confidence in other areas of study. And the better they do in school, the more that confidence carries over to areas outside of the classroom.”

Dr Mantri said school pupil Tejas Mittal, from Edinburgh, demonstrated “remarkable speed and accuracy” in mental arithmetic.

She said: “His father tells us that Tejas uses his abacus skills in everyday scenarios, like calculating grocery totals and measuring the carpet areas in square feet of a newly constructed building.”

Tejas’s father, Mukesh Mittal, Senior Delivery Manager at Cognizant, said: “As a parent, I am beyond thrilled with the progress Tejas has made through the Abacus Maths course at BYITC. The transformation has been remarkable, not just in his academic performance but in how he applies maths in daily life.

“Tejas confidently uses his abacus skills in real-world scenarios, impressing us and even our friends and family. We are incredibly grateful to the team at BYITC for their dedication and the positive impact they’ve had on our son’s education and overall development. Thank you for making maths not just a subject but a life skill that Tejas will carry with him always.”

BYITC teaches abacus maths online to students globally through its interactive Supermaths programme, which offers a mix of weekly teacher-led abacus maths classes and online tutorials.

The abacus is thought to have been first used by the Babylonians, an ancient Middle Eastern civilization, as early as 2,400 BC. The device consists of several rows of beads grouped in tens and mounted on a frame. Maths calculations are made by sliding beads back and forth to represent the various numbers in the calculation.

“Fingers, pebble calculators and computers have been used across history to calculate big numbers,” Dr Mantri said. “But the abacus is the one device that stands the test of millennia and is known to be highly effective at training the brain to make mathematical calculations involving huge numbers.”

BYITC says research in countries including Japan has shown that benefits of the abacus method include:

  • Numerical Memory – Learning to do maths on an abacus makes it easier for students to memorise long numbers. A study at Japan’s Shinshu University showed that nine-digit memorisation was ‘fairly easy’ for students
  • Problem-Solving Skills – The abacus method improves problem-solving skills, both in maths and other areas of life. The method teaches children to think through problems logically.
  • Rapid Calculations – Learning maths with the abacus method equips a student to do rapid calculations without the need for electronic devices or writing instruments. All calculations are performed in the head by visualising the abacus.
  • Critical Thinking – The skills learned in the abacus method make students better at critical thinking in other areas of life. They are better able to conceptualise all sorts of challenges. They think through solutions and reach conclusions more easily.

Dr Mantri started teaching her son, Dhruv, maths using the abacus method when he was in Primary 5. By the age of 12, Dhruv – who has featured on TV shows for his “human calculator” skills – was developing web programming tutorials and giving online cyber security seminars. Now 18, he is pursuing a career in data science and analytics.

BYITC holds regular maths competitions to showcase the remarkable skills of its students.

Time to Talk Numbers at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre

THURSDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 11am – 2pm

🍞Maths on Toast!?🍞

Royston Wardieburn Community Centre has ‘Maths on Toast’ on offer!!

A laid back, fun-filled numeracy class where they turn everyday math into something exciting (and a little bit toasty)! Whether you are looking to sharpen your skills or just have fun with numbers, this is the place to be.

Come for the math, stay for the laughs and leave with the fresh perspective on numbers. Make math as easy as toast! 🍞

📅When: Thursday 19th of September 11am to 2pm

📍Where: Royston Wardieburn Community Centre

🤩Who: Everyone is welcome

#pchp40

#communitywellbeingprogramme

#FiveWaysToWellbeing

#neighbourhood

#neighbourshelpingneighbours

#communitycentred

Celebrating Read Write Count

Supporting child literacy and numeracy

Children across Scotland will be gifted a quarter of a million books and counting activities as part of the Read Write Count with the First Minister programme.

Around 248,000 books will be given to pupils in primary two and three this year as part of a programme underlining the First Minster’s personal commitment to supporting child literacy and numeracy learning across the country.

Pupils in Gaelic Medium Education receive bags with copies of the books in Gaelic and English accounting for 8,000 books in 2,000 bilingual bags.

Read Write Count with the First Minister aims to build parents’ confidence, and encourage families to include easy and fun reading, writing and counting activities in their everyday lives.

The programme received Scottish Government funding of £932,132 for 2023-24.

First Minister Humza Yousaf visited Craigentinny Primary School in Edinburgh to gift pupils with bags to mark Book Week Scotland.

The First Minister said: “I want to encourage all children to enjoy reading, writing, and counting. Reading for pleasure is crucial in developing children’s literacy skills, and our funded national programmes such as Read Write Count with the First Minister are about supporting and enhancing a love of reading from an early age.

“When I was young my favourite books were the ones that were fun and that taught me something new. A good story, or a good book, can open new worlds to us. Reading can even help us if we feel sad, or if we’re unsure about something, and want to learn more about it.

“The Read Write Count with the First Minister programme is a key part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to raising attainment by building parents’ confidence and encouraging families to include fun reading, writing and counting activities in their everyday lives.”

Chief Executive Officer of Scottish Book Trust Marc Lambert said: “Gifting books to children through the Bookbug and Read Write Count with First Minister programmes is one of the highlights of Book Week Scotland each year. For many children in Scotland, the only books they have at home are the ones they are given by Scottish Book Trust.

“Our Bookbug and Read Write Count bags reach children from birth up to Primary 3, and we know they can make a big impact to children’s lives. We’re grateful to the First Minister for joining us at Craigentinny Primary School as the pupils and their families were gifted the bags.”

Scottish Government’s ‘National Mission’ to close attainment gap

Scotland’s councils set out ambitions to help young people succeed

Local authorities have published their plans for closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

Councils across Scotland have set their own “stretch aims” for children and young peoples’ progress in literacy and numeracy levels, for senior phase qualifications achieved, as well as for the number of young people participating in education, training, or employment.

For both overall attainment and in terms of closing the poverty-related attainment gap in literacy and numeracy, the collective stretch aims of local authorities demonstrate ambitions to work towards achieving the biggest two-year improvement recorded since the introduction of the Scottish Attainment Challenge.

This work will be supported by the Scottish Government’s £1 billion Scottish Attainment Challenge, with £43 million in Strategic Equity Funding allocated to local authorities this year. In total more than £130 million has been distributed to schools so far this year to help close the poverty-related attainment gap.

Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “We are committed to substantially eliminating the poverty-related attainment gap and councils have a crucial role in driving this national mission forward at a local level.

“Given the effect of COVID-19 on children and young peoples’ achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels in 2020/21, these collective aims represent significant local ambition for recovery back to and beyond the national position pre-pandemic, aiming to narrow the poverty related attainment gap by over seven percentage points in both primary school literacy and numeracy compared to 2020/21.

“These will drive an enhanced focus on outcomes for children and young people, ensuring they have the opportunities and support they need to reach their full potential.”

Multiply your number confidence to help get on at work

Following the Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcement of a £560m numeracy scheme called Multiply in the Budget this week, charity National Numeracy has published new research that  shows that, when it comes to numbers, feeling confident is crucial. 

The charity’s Putting Number Confidence to Work report shows confidence with numbers plays a  stronger role than number skills in making people feel better able to get a qualification, find a job  or get on at work. 

The report is released to coincide with Number Confidence Week which kicked off on 1st November, seeking to help boost the way the nation feels about numbers. 

Over the past six months, National Numeracy has tracked the reasons 26,000 people have given for  wanting to improve their number confidence and skills when using the National Numeracy Challenge  online tool. The leading reason given is ‘to get on in work’.  

Analysis shows that improving both number confidence and skills gives a bigger boost than skills or  confidence alone, when it comes to feeling more able to take next steps in to work: 61% of  confidence and skill improvers (1,379 people) said they felt more able to get a qualification, find a  job or get on at work. 

But, crucially, improving confidence with numbers alone was enough to give a big boost to feeling  better able to get on at work: 48% (892 people) who improved their number confidence, but not  their skills, feel better able to get a qualification, find a job or get on at work. 

While just improving skills, but not confidence, boosts feelings of being better able to get on in work,  it’s to a much lesser degree than when confidence is also improved: 20% (192 people) of people who  improve their number skills, but not confidence felt better able to get a qualification, find a job or  get on at work. 

The charity also found that women feel significantly less confident with numbers than men, even  when they have a high level of skill with numbers. 

These new findings supplement research for National Numeracy carried out in May 2021 of a  nationally representative survey of 2,000 adults (18+) that found nearly one in five people (18%)  avoid applying for a job or qualification because it, or the interview process, involves maths.  

The data reflects what National Numeracy has found on the ground – employers and employees  reporting problems with number confidence and maths anxiety blocking the pipelines to key  progression routes, such as apprenticeships. 

So it is therefore crucial that greater attention is paid to improving confidence as a stepping-stone to  improving skills, opening up access to learning and progression opportunities, and the benefits for  employment that improved numeracy brings. That’s where Number Confidence Week comes in. 

Number Confidence Week offers a week of fun, useful content with celebrities, experts and  numeracy improvers. From livestreams to downloads, video resources to kids’ activities, there is something to help everyone feel more number confident.

Kicking off on Monday 1 November, the  week covers three crucial topics: supporting your children; managing your money; and getting into,  or on, at work. Number Confidence Week is supported by leading global markets infrastructure and  data solutions provider, TP ICAP, and as always, everything is entirely free for view and use. 

Sam Sims, Chief Executive of National Numeracy said: “Feeling confident about numbers is a game changer. Our research shows that confidence unlocks the door to skills-building and feeling better  able to get in to work or get on at work or get a qualification.

“That’s why, this Number Confidence  Week, we want to inspire as many people as possible to feel more comfortable and confident with  everyday maths. Number confidence really is the foundation for opening up opportunities and  brighter futures.” 

Nicolas Breteau, Group Chief Executive of TP ICAP, the founding partner of Number Confidence Week, said: “We know that numeracy is crucial in today’s world, not only for the success of our  industry but also in enabling individuals to make better choices for their finances and careers.

“Our  research has shown that low confidence with numbers remains a significant barrier for many, and  often holds talented individuals back from considering a career in financial services. It’s important  that we change that, which is why we became a founding partner of Number Confidence Week” 

Putting-Number-Confidence-to-Work_Nov21Download

Boosting numeracy levels in the UK is key to building a skilled nation able to recover from the  pandemic after a period of immense instability in our job markets.

The UK’s numeracy levels are  significantly below the average for developed countries, with 49% of the UK’s working-age  population having the expected numeracy levels of a primary school child. And poor numeracy costs  the UK economy a staggering £25 billion a year.

500,000 adults to ace maths with ‘Multiply’ numeracy programme

  • New £560 million Multiply programme to be launched providing personalised maths coaching for up to half a million people across the UK.
  • Transformational numeracy scheme will transform the lives of some of the 8 million adults in England who have numeracy skills lower than those expected of a 9-year-old.
  • Funding to be channelled through the new £1.5bn UK Shared Prosperity Fund – which replaces a pot of money previously divvied up and distributed by the EU and means the government can target funding where it is needed most.

A TRANSFORMATIONAL £560 million scheme to improve the maths skills of hundreds of thousands of adults across the UK is set to unveiled by the Chancellor next week.

At Wednesday’s Budget and Spending Review, Rishi Sunak will announce that up to 500,000 people will benefit from Multiply with improved basic numeracy skills through free personal tutoring, digital training, and flexible courses.

More than 8 million adults in England have numeracy skills lower than those expected of a 9-year-old with the North East, West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber worst affected. And by the age of 30, people with poor numeracy skills are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as their peers.

According to research, improving numeracy skills can increase your pay cheque by 14%, and reduce joblessness by half – boosting the economy and changing lives.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said: “Better maths can mean a better job and a bigger pay packet. Multiply will help people develop new skills and create opportunities.”

Sam Sims, Chief Executive of National Numeracy said: “Low numeracy blights lives, holding millions of people back from fulfilling their potential and it comes at a huge cost to the economy.

“We need solutions that reach and engage people with low numeracy to build confidence with numbers as well as skills, as a steppingstone to further learning and opportunity.

“National Numeracy is delighted with the announcement of the government’s new ‘Multiply’ scheme, which promises to help improve the numeracy of hundreds of thousands of people.”

Launching in the Spring, Multiply will give people who don’t have at least a GCSE grade C/4 or equivalent in maths access to free new flexible courses to improve their maths.

It will also include a new website with bitesize training and free one-to-one online tutorials to help hundreds of thousands of people improve their maths in every part of the United Kingdom.

The programme will be funded through the new UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which replaces the EU’s Structural Funds, which were previously divvied up and distributed by the EU.

Funding for the UKSPF will increase to £1.5bn per year, meeting the Government’s commitment to level up all parts of the UK. The Multiply scheme is the first step of the new Fund, with further investment provided for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Rather than the EU’s scatter gun approach, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will ensure the UK Government can target funding where it is needed most – through schemes like Multiply which will help level-up the UK.

Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack said: “The UK Govt made a clear commitment to maintain Scotland’s level of funding following the vote to leave the EU and we have delivered on that promise.

“This is good news for communities across Scotland who will continue to benefit from a range of important projects. Going forward, new arrangements will allow us to deal directly with communities ensuring money is spent on projects that matter most to the people of Scotland.”

City schools urged to sign up for Scotland’s first nationwide online maths contest

Pupils from across the Lothians are being invited to showcase their numeracy skills and prove they are top of the class by joining the 265 classes in the region who have already signed up for Scotland’s first ever nationwide online school maths contest, launched today (Friday 21stApril) by Scottish education technology social enterprise Sumdog. Continue reading City schools urged to sign up for Scotland’s first nationwide online maths contest

Help them shine

new ad campaign to support childrens’ literacy and numeracy

150518 GWR mother and child gs (1)

Parents and families have a key role to play in helping their children to read, write and count well and a new TV and supermarket-based advertising campaign has been launched to encourage and help parents to support their children’s learning beyond the classroom. Continue reading Help them shine