Author: Oonagh McGarry

Improving Gender Balance and Equalities and CLD toolkit: Introduction for CLD leaders and interested practitioners

9.30-10.30 am Tuesday 13th June (MS Teams)

IGBE and CLD wakelet

Education Scotland is delighted to be launching this new toolkit to support self-evaluation in the Community Learning and Development sector. Aligned to HGIOCLD?4, the toolkit is aimed at CLD leaders, who can influence change in the system, and will also be of interest to practitioners.

This session will provide:

  • An overview of why gender equality is becoming increasingly important in all aspects of life
  • A chance to explore the value that developing a better understanding of gender equality data can bring to CLD planning and evaluation.
  • An introduction to the data guide, self-evaluation framework and supporting documents
  • Highlights from the learning and impacts from pilot sites
  • An outline of support available to CLD providers wishing to engage with the toolkit
  • An opportunity to consider how your CLD provision might use the toolkit

Research shows us that transformational change requires a whole system approach. With this in mind, the self-evaluation framework focuses heavily on Leadership and Direction, including the Quality Indicators 6.1 Raising Standards and 6.2 Securing Improvement. It also includes QIs from Performance and Outcomes and Management and Delivery.

To find out more or to book your place on this introductory session please contact Oonagh McGarry at oonagh.mcgarry@educationscotland.gov.scot . This session will run again in the autumn.

Supporting children with numeracy

National Numeracy Day is fast approaching (17th May!) and this week we are highlighting information and resources for supporting parents and carers with children’s numeracy.

Numeracy and Mathematics Glossaries

This glossary has been developed for parents and carers of children and young people in the broad general education in Scottish schools. It provides clear definitions of some of the most commonly used terms in numeracy and mathematics.

https://education.gov.scot/parentzone/learning-at-home/supporting-numeracy/numeracy-and-mathematics-glossary/

Videos to Support Parents with Numeracy and Mathematics Methods and Approaches

The National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS) worked in partnership with Count On Us and Education Scotland to create eight ‘Learning Together’ videos.

The videos outline a range of methods and approaches including early numeracy foundations, addition and subtraction, and fractions, decimals and percentages.

https://education.gov.scot/parentzone/learning-at-home/supporting-numeracy/support-for-parents-on-numeracy-and-mathematics-methods-and-approaches/

National Numeracy

National Numeracy have lots of ideas for parents and families to support children with maths along with lots of free activities. The site also offers resources to help educators support family engagement with children’s maths learning.

Supporting children | National Numeracy

I am a Mathematician

We use maths every day, at work, leisure and at home. Parents and carers can play a vital role in reinforcing the importance of maths to their children, promoting a positive attitude towards it and making it a fun activity to do together as a family.  This resource will help parents to support their children’s learning with fun activities to do at home.

https://education.gov.scot/parentzone/Documents/IAmAMathematician270417.pdf

Improving Gender Balance and Equalities in CLD: Toolkit and resources

Gender equality is becoming increasingly important in all aspects of life. Education Scotland has co-produced a new toolkit to encourage challenge and promote change across the Community Learning and Development sector. Developed with CLD managers and practitioners, the toolkit will support CLD providers to seek out and analyse data, to self-evaluate and plan for improvement.

The toolkit is aimed particularly at CLD leaders, who can influence change in the system, and will also be of interest to practitioners.

The toolkit is available on the Education Scotland website.   It contains a guide to gathering and using data and  a self-evaluation framework. There are three case studies which detail how these have been used by CLD providers during the pilot and the impact this had.  There are tools to help you use the framework such as an evidence tracker and action plan template.  There are sections with information on research and data and links to relevant organisations. New material will be added as it becomes available.

Support is available from Education Scotland to engage with and use the toolkit. If you would like to know more please contact Oonagh McGarry at oonagh.mcgarry@educationscotland.gov.scot

 

National Numeracy Day 2023. Will you be a numbers champion?

Sign up for National Numeracy Day: National Numeracy Day sign up | National Numeracy

National Numeracy Day will take place on Wednesday 17th May 2023.  Education Scotland and the Scottish Government will again participate as lead supporters of the #NationalNumeracyDay campaign in the hope of encouraging all adults in Scotland to become more confident in using numbers in every day life.

This year National Numeracy will celebrate numbers by hosting a mainly virtual campaign, packed full of practical advice from celebrities and experts, inspirational stories from real-life learners and a host of free online events and resources.  The campaign will focus on three key themes; numeracy for work, managing money and supporting children.  “The impact of the economic [Covid-19] crisis has been disproportionately felt by those with low numeracy skills”  (Counting on the Recovery, 2021). It is particularly important at the moment, as households continue to face financial challenges, that we highlight the importance of being number confident and knowing how and where to get help to improve maths skills.

If you sign up for National Numeracy Day you will receive free, fun materials and resources to use and share, and join over 4,800 organisations helping the nation to feel good about numbers.  All participants will have access to an online number skills checker called ‘The National Numeracy Challenge’ that will help signpost to resources to improve number skills.

What can you do? As an individual or an organisation you can run an online event, you can circulate resources to learners/parents or you can just simply promote the campaign via social media to your partners and stakeholders.

To find out more visit National Numeracy Day – 17 May 2023

The Numeracy Challenge is a fun interactive tool to find out how confident you are using numbers, and it flags up how easy it is to get support and learn if you want to. Take the Numeracy Challenge, and encourage your staff/colleagues and learners too.

Since 2018, Scotland has had record numbers of community organisations, adult learning providers, schools and businesses signing up to be numeracy champions:

  • An estimated 7,554 people took action on the National Numeracy Challenge from Scotland, which is a 25% increase on last year and around 9% of the total Challenge actions
  • The average Challenge Quick Check score in Scotland was 12.3 out of 20, in line with the average UK score of 12.4
  • The average confidence score in Scotland was also higher than the UK average (7.0 compared to 6.8 out of 10)
  • 18% of all official Champions organisations supporting National Numeracy Day were from Scotland

 

Number Confidence Week, 7-11 November 

Confidence to use numbers helps everyone to be more successful at work, to manage our lives and to support our children at school. This annual campaign , run by National Numeracy, aims to make sure that everyone feels comfortable with everyday maths. 

49% of adults have the numeracy skills expected of a primary school child. Feeling that we “don’t get” numbers or that we’re no good at maths can mean we avoid them, which only makes matters worse. Low confidence with numbers can hold us back, affect our wellbeing and have an impact on how our children feel about maths too. Number Confidence Week exists to help us take steps towards numbers instead of running away from them. But doing so is only possible in a safe, supportive space. National Numeracy has created free online resources that can be accessed by anyone, at any time.  

How can you support and promote Number Confidence Week?  

Visit the Number Confidence Week campaign hub:  Number Confidence Week 2022 | National Numeracy 

Have a go at the National Numeracy Challenge, and promote it to others:  https://www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/challenge/edscot 

Social media: #NumberConfidenceWeek #becauseofcld @Nat_numeracy @EdScotCLD 

Maths Week Scotland “Playing with Pattern” Online Workshop 2nd October

A gentle workshop for anyone interesting in making patterns using  art and a little bit of maths. Funded by Maths Week Scotland, this workshop will be run by Lucy Rycroft-Smith and take place 11-12.30 on Sun 2nd Oct. Described as a gentle introduction to mathematical art, the workshop is suitable for adults and children (8 yrs+). 

Playing with pattern making Tickets, Sun 2 Oct 2022 at 11:00 | Eventbrite

Becoming a Numeracy Champion- free online training available for CLD practitioners and STEM Ambassadors

Following on from the success of Phase 1 of a STEM grant, this training programme is being offered free to CLD practitioners in the South East (Oct-Nov), Northern Alliance (Sep-Nov) and Tayside (Nov-Dec). There is also a “mop up” session for all areas (Dec). The programme consists of 3 x 2hr workshops and was highly valued by previous participants.  Use the links below to find out more and to book a place:

National Numeracy Day 2022- Are you a Numbers Champion?

National Numeracy Day will take place on 18th May 2022.  Education Scotland and the Scottish Government will again participate as lead supporters of the #NationalNumeracyDay campaign in the hope of encouraging all adults in Scotland to become more confident in using numbers in every day life.

This year National Numeracy will celebrate numbers by hosting a mainly virtual festival, packed full of practical advice from celebrities and experts, inspirational stories from real-life learners and a host of free online events and resources.  The festival will focus on three key themes; supporting children’s numeracy, managing your money and numeracy for work.  “The impact of the economic [Covid-19] crisis has been disproportionately felt by those with low numeracy skills”  (Counting on the Recovery, 2021). It is particularly important at the moment, as households continue to face financial challenges, that we highlight the importance of being number confident and knowing how and where to get help to improve maths skills.

If you sign up to be a National Numeracy Day Champion you will receive free, fun materials and resources to use and share, and join over 2,800 other Champions helping the nation to feel good about numbers.  All participants will have access to an online number skills checker called ‘The Challenge’ that will help signpost to resources to improve number skills.

To be a champion you could run an online event, you could circulate resources to learners/parents or you could just simply promote the campaign via social media to your partners and stakeholders.

Sign up to be a Champion by clicking the link below:

To find out more visit National Numeracy Day ​

The Numeracy Challenge is a fun interactive tool to find out how confident you are using numbers, and it flags up how easy it is to get support and learn if you want to. Take the Numeracy Challenge, and encourage your staff/colleagues and learners too.

Since 2018, Scotland has had record numbers of community organisations, adult learning providers, schools and businesses signing up to be numeracy champions:

  • 6,054 people took action on the National Numeracy Challenge from Scotland, which is around 11% of the total Challenge actions
  • The average Challenge score in Scotland was 12.5, slightly higher than the average UK score of 12
  • The average confidence score in Scotland was also higher than the UK average (7 compared to 6.7)
  • 13% of all official Champions organisations supporting NNDay were from Scotland