Sarah – a student at the Adult College of Barking and Dagenham, and Bahia, a teacher and Curriculum Manager at the college and trained Numeracy Champion, both spoke to National Numeracy about their experiences.
Sarah’s story:
At school I didn’t get the right help around all of my schoolwork. I went to a special needs school and there were people in my class who were worse off than me, so they got more attention.
As an adult I found the college through a friend and started to get enrolled onto courses. At the moment I’m studying several courses, including English, maths and Preparing For Work.
Using number skills to set up a pop-up shop for charity
Before going to the college I never would have imagined that one day I would be running a shop and dealing with money and numbers.
As part of one of my courses I ran a pop-up shop to raise money for charity. We promoted it and people donated things which we sold: clothes, bric-a-brac, books, DVDs, CDs and household things.
Before going to the college I never would have imagined that one day I would be running a shop and dealing with money and numbers.
People in my childhood would say things like: “You’re not good at this,” “You’re not good at that,” “You’re not going to get here,” “You’re not going to get there” and “It’s pointless you doing that because you won’t be able to do it.”
So it felt really good to be able to run the shop. The first year I think we raised over £200, we did it again the next year and raised £475. The money went to a Parkinson's Disease charity.
There is more to maths than numbers
In the future I want to work in retail. Working with numbers for the pop-up shop didn’t bother me because I’m quite good with the money side, it’s reading maths that I find hard.
I have dyslexia, which makes the reading side of maths difficult. It isn’t always about writing down numbers, it’s also about reading the words in the questions.
I work better with pictures and people talking to me face to face than reading something from a piece of paper.
Finding a way of learning that suits you
I feel better about learning maths now. When I was at school I didn’t want to learn at all, but it’s easier now, because I’m getting the right tailored help and support.
Every day is about numbers in some way or another. When you look at prices for things it’s always numbers and when you go into a shop you’ve got to figure out how much you’re going to spend.
I feel better about learning maths now. When I was at school I didn’t want to learn at all, but it’s easier now, because I’m getting the right tailored help and support.
I’m more comfortable with maths than I was when I was a child. I still think maths is hard, but I’m learning a better way to do it. It’s made it a lot easier and I’m understanding it more.
You might not like maths, but you might find it easier if you learn it the right way, the way you understand it.
