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National Numeracy Day hits the headlines - and inspires thousands to start their journey towards better numeracy

30 May 2018

Take part in National Numeracy Day 2020

On Wednesday 16th May 2018 the first National Numeracy Day grabbed headlines across the country by announcing new research exposing us as a nation being held back by ‘maths anxiety’.  This gave us a fantastic platform to talk about our mission, the benefits of good numeracy, and why. 

To make National Numeracy Day happen we worked together with founding supporter KPMG, and 13 organisations from across the public and private sector, who all shared our passion for this cause and for effecting positive change.  Over 80 organisations came on board in total, ranging from leaders in business, education, the third sector and the Scottish Government. 

National Numeracy

The day was covered by over 60 media outlets including: Financial Times, The Telegraph, London Evening Standard, Daily Mirror, City AM, BBC Breakfast and BBC Radio 4's Today Programme,  reaching millions of people across the UK. 

Good Morning Britain reported live from the London Stock Exchange, where we were invited to open the market, with the help of our ambassador, MoneySavingExpert.com’s Martin Lewis. Meanwhile fellow ambassadors Rachel Riley and Bobby Seagull were interviewed live on BBC Breakfast encouraging everyone to embrace their inner numbers person.

National Numeracy trustees were out in force, with Wendy Jones interviewed on 12 BBC regional radio stations across the country, Lynne McClure joining a celebratory breakfast event in Glasgow, and Andy Haldane helping to finish off the day at an evening event, thanking all of our supporters and encouraging them to keep up the momentum beyond the day.  

"We need to change attitudes towards maths, put more positivity in to it …start helping each other out." Rachel Riley, TV presenter

#NationalNumeracyDay trended all morning on Twitter, with top ranking profiles like Martin Lewis, Rachel Riley, Number 10, Channel 4, The Met Office and BBC 2 showing their support.

Mike Ellicock, Chief Executive of National Numeracy, commented: “National Numeracy Day was made possible by KMPG and our many other supporters, who came out in force to show their commitment to the issue - but the work is far from over. We’ve made a great leap in the right direction but let’s not stop there! 

“The benefits of good numeracy include; better job prospects, increased confidence in managing personal finances, more productive businesses, a stronger economy and even better health. In the coming years we hope to see more businesses join the cause and commit to supporting the nation and their workforce in improving their numeracy every day”. 

On the inaugural National Numeracy Day we asked people to take the first step towards improved number skills by checking their current numeracy level using our free online assessment tool and if needed, to make use of the further free resources to help them gain greater skills and confidence. 

As a result:

  • more than 25,000 people signed up to check if they have the Essentials of Numeracy and start their journey towards improving throughout May
  • National Numeracy received over 76,000 website visitors during the week of the campaign
  • Thousands more people tried out topical quick quizzes including Royal Wedding and FA Cup themes
  • there were over 7,700 downloads of resources from our numeracy toolkits.

While this successful first year has set the bar high for 2019 and beyond, it doesn't stop here! National Numeracy is working all year round to help everyone become numbers people.   For more information visit: www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/get-involved. 

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We'd like to thank all of our official National Numeracy Day supporters, in addition to the campaign founders, KPMG:

CBRE, Cisco, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Experian, Education Scotland & the Scottish Government, Health Education England (NHS), M&G Investments, NS&I, Provident Financial Group, NatWest, TP ICAP, Ufi Charitable Trust, Virgin Money and Zurich.

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