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Engaging a school community with maths in Birmingham

8 Oct 2025

By Beth Barnes, Schools & Families Programme Manager

National Numeracy’s Schools & Families Programme has been inspiring school pupils around the UK to improve their relationship with numbers. 

Have you ever wondered how to engage parents, carers, pupils and staff more with maths in your school community? 

Yorkmead School in Birmingham had always strived to do just that, and on discovering National Numeracy’s Schools & Families Programme, found a variety of ways in which to improve positivity towards numbers, including delivering workshops, issuing maths activity scrapbooks and providing staff with training. 

As a result, pupils’ attitudes to maths are improving, parental engagement has increased and staff have greater awareness of how to help boost number confidence, as teacher and maths lead Jessica Williams explains…

Why did you apply for the Schools & Families Programme?

As a school, we are always looking for ways to engage with our community and this has been a high priority for us for the last few years. 

We saw the Schools & Families Programme as the perfect opportunity to help us collaborate with parents and help them feel confident and empowered to support their children outside of school.

Did the pupils and their families enjoy the Family Maths Toolkit activities?

Yes! National Numeracy provided scrapbooks for over 300 children across our school. We explained to staff, parents and children that these activities were not extra homework but were fun activities and games they could do together at home. This really got children on board!  

Lots of children enjoyed completing the toolkit activities and it was lovely to see that they had worked with their parents, siblings or members of their wider family.

We have now created a ‘Star Scrapbooks’ display in our corridor, where we are displaying some of the fantastic work children have done in their scrapbooks. Children are really proud of this and hopefully this will help encourage others to do the same.   

Star scrapbooks wall display

Did you notice an increase in parental engagement?

Parents have definitely engaged in more activities with their children than in previous years. They commented that the toolkits provided a great opportunity to spend quality time with their child and they avoided the ‘battle’ that they sometimes encountered with homework!

We have also found that the scrapbooks provided an additional communication path between school and home. Lots of parents left comments and little notes to the teachers when completing the activities, which helped teachers to gain further understanding of children’s and families’ needs.

How did the ‘Help Your Child Love Maths!’ workshops go?

We delivered a separate workshop for every class, totalling 10 workshops altogether. The first half of the workshop was just for parents and in the second half the children joined their parents to try a Family Maths Toolkit activity.

During the workshops, we tried to create a safe, respectful space where parents knew there was no judgement. It was great to hear parents open up and talk freely, whether they loved or loathed maths. During the workshops, parents had the opportunity to chat to each other and hopefully some new friendships were formed.

The ‘Top Tips’ which we discussed, were very clear and simple to implement. Parents were really enthusiastic about putting them into practise with their children at home.

How did the staff find the training available – Numeracy Champions, Feeling Better About Maths and expert-led webinars?

The Numeracy Champions training was very informative and eye-opening. It really made us consider the current culture around numeracy and the impact that poor numeracy can have on adults and children.

Throughout the year, we also engaged with a number of different webinars, including Maths Anxiety, Dyscalculia, Parental Engagement and Just Finance. These were all incredibly useful and a great source of CPD [Continuing Professional Development].

The theme of this year’s Number Confidence Week is Money Matters. What difference does it make when children see maths connected to real-life things like money?

When we teach children about money, it helps them understand that maths is used all the time in the ‘real world’ and is not just something they have to learn about at school.

During National Numeracy Day, ‘The Money Edition’, children completed a fun budgeting activity which they really enjoyed. We also took part in the live assembly.

What impact has the Schools & Families Programme had on your school – pupils, families and staff?

Firstly, the programme reinforced what we knew about boosting children’s confidence in maths through the words staff use. For example, it reminded us of the importance of praising children’s effort, rather than their talent.

We know from feedback that parents found the workshops particularly useful and the ‘Top Tips’ are really easy to implement at home. Parents have enjoyed spending time completing maths activities with their children and have talked about how lovely it has been to have that quality time together.

I have also noticed that parents are more open to ask questions and talk about maths – there have been numerous occasions where parents from across the school have approached me on the playground to ask questions about what their child is learning or about what else they can do to support at home.

Finally, and most importantly, pupils’ attitudes towards maths are definitely improving. There have been so many times this year where children have come up to me in the corridor and told me they ‘love maths!’

For years, we have thought about how to encourage more positive attitudes towards maths but having these clear, practical tips has really helped. I know all the small changes in what we say, do and model will have a gradual impact on the way children feel about maths over time.

Are you continuing with any aspects of the programme?

We would like to make the workshops a regular thing, especially for parents of new cohorts so they understand how they can support their children from the outset. We will also definitely continue to engage with National Numeracy Day as the children loved it!

It’s great that we will still be invited to attend some of the expert-led webinars in the year following the programme, I found these really useful. Lots of children would love to continue with the scrapbooks at home so we are looking into how we can use these in the long-term too.

Two examples of maths scrapbook activities

Would you recommend participating in the Schools & Families Programme to other schools?

Absolutely! The programme offers so many useful resources, including training, PowerPoints, scrapbooks, toolkits, expert-led webinars, messaging templates and much more. Everything is provided for you so it really doesn’t add to your workload, yet the impact it can have is huge.

The programme has been invaluable to our school with regards to engaging and empowering parents and changing attitudes towards maths in our school community. Thank you for the opportunity to take part!

What Yorkmead School community have to say about the Schools & Families Programme: 

“Varied, fun and engaging ways to practise maths skills.” – Teacher 

“It's a good way of learning and recognising how maths is used outside of the classroom in real-life situations.” – Teaching Assistant

On the ‘Help Your Child Love Maths!’ workshop: 

“Had lots of fun. Think the idea is really good as it helps adults too.” – Parent 

“Really enjoyed the workshop. Found it very useful and looking forward to doing all the activities.” – Parent 

“I loved working with my kids. I really enjoyed this workshop.” – Parent 

“I was happy doing maths with my mum, it was fun.” – Pupil 

“It was a very fun activity to do with your child.” – Parent 

“I love this!” – Pupil

If you would like further information about joining the Schools & Families Programme, please contact schoolsandfamilies@nationalnumeracy.org.uk

If you are a corporate organisation interested in partnering with National Numeracy to support our work, including the Schools & Families Programme, please contact partnerships@nationalnumeracy.org.uk