Numeracy

The importance of Numeracy

At Harris Academy St John’s Wood, we are committed to raising the standards of Numeracy of all our students, enabling them to develop the ability to use Numeracy skills effectively in all areas of the curriculum and the skills necessary to cope confidently with the demands of further education, employment and adult life.

Numeracy is a proficiency that is developed mainly in Mathematics but also in other subjects. Numeracy involves developing confidence and competence with numbers and measures. Poor numeracy skills hold back pupils’ progress and can lower their self-esteem. Numeracy skills can be consolidated and enhanced when pupils have opportunities to apply them across the curriculum.

NUMERACY AT OUR SCHOOL

1. Students take part in weekly Numeracy problems in tutor time

2. Numeracy Quiz at the end of each term

Intervention programme

At Harris Academy St John’s Wood we realise that one-to-one and small group teaching can have huge impact on our students' progress and focus our attention on those who have the most gaps in their knowledge especially with the impact of covid-19. Therefore, the academy has a planned programme of out of hours learning which includes:

• Year 7 intervention during tutor time – one-to-one support with a sixth form mathematician
• Year 7 intervention after school on Thursdays – Led by one of the Maths teachers
• Year 8 and 9 intervention on Monday’s -one-to-one support with a sixth form mathematician and small group teacher led.

 

What can you do to support Numeracy at home?

At Harris Academy St John’s Wood, we work hard to support your child’s Numeracy development in all subjects and we would welcome any time you could devote to this at home.

We have already added to our website (see links) some materials for you to use with your son/daughter. It would be useful if you would also:

• Show them how we use Maths skills in our everyday lives and to involve your child in this;
• Identifying problems and solving them can also help your child develop Maths skills; If you see him or her puzzling over something, talk about the problem and try to work out the solution together;
• Don't shy away from Maths if you didn’t like it at school. Try to find new ways to enjoy the subject with your child;
• Take your child shopping and talk about the quantities of anything you buy;
• Let your child handle money and work out how much things cost;
• When taking transport, work out the journey times and encourage them to plan journeys together.

 

Home Learning – SPARX MATHS

Each student at Harris Academy St John’s Wood has access to our online maths facility, SPARX Maths

Students can view over 1000 mathematical video tutorials in order to learn new skills, or simply refresh old ones! 

Each student has their own unique username and password so that they can keep track of their results and keep in contact with their teacher using the SPARX Maths platform.

We are using the online programme to help to sustain progress and support prior learning. This work will run alongside your child’s regular homework.

 

The growing need for numeracy

Our need for a good level of numeracy only increases as we get older.

When we start thinking about mortgages, the financial implications of borrowing money, interest rates and pensions it's essential that we're numerate enough to make informed decisions. 

So many of the important decisions we must make as adults are based on numbers. This means that people who are not confident and capable with numbers are estimated to be worse off than those with good numeracy skills. A report in 2014 for National Numeracy by Pro Bono Economics found that the average cost to individuals with poor numeracy is £460 a year.