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Number Confidence Week toolkit

Welcome to the Number Confidence Week team!

From 2-8 November we want everyone across the UK to join in and build their confidence with numbers. This year the theme is ‘Count on Your Community’, to help create spaces where everyone can talk openly about numbers, feel safe making mistakes, and take steps together to build their confidence.

Get involved and help spread the word using the resources below. We'll be adding new materials as we get closer to the week.

Check back for updates, and together let's build confidence and unlock new opportunities for everyone!

Getting involved

There are loads of ways you can get involved with Number Confidence Week.

1. The Big Number Natter

Bring the campaign to life in your workplace by inviting staff to take part in a conversation about numbers. You can hold Number Natters in groups or one-to-one, and they can be as formal or informal as you like. You can also share number stories and experiences across your internal and external channels using #BigNumberNatter, then encourage colleagues to take the next step by building their confidence with the National Numeracy Challenge.

Get your Big Number Natter resources

2. Spread the word and invite others

Help us grow the campaign by encouraging education providers and partner organisations in your network to join in! From nurseries and schools to workplaces and community groups, everyone who signs up will receive a free toolkit with resources and activity sheets.

Use these materials and text templates

3. The National Numeracy Challenge

The National Numeracy Challenge is our free, easy-to-use online tool designed to build everyday maths skills and confidence. Encourage your colleagues, customers and communities to take part using the downloadable assets on this page. It’s the perfect next step after a Big Number Natter for staff — and a simple way to help boost number confidence across your wider audiences.

Use these materials and text templates

4. Thought leadership & media opportunities

Position your organisation at the forefront of tackling the UK’s numeracy crisis.

Share your commitment by encouraging leaders to speak about your involvement in the campaign internally to inspire your workforce, and externally through articles, blogs, newsletters, social media and media opportunities. The Comms team at National Numeracy will be delivering a high-profile media campaign, and we’d love to work with you to amplify your story even further please get in touch to explore opportunities.

Visit our Media Centre or get in touch

5. Individual giving & fundraising

Support National Numeracy this Number Confidence Week through a donation, fundraising activity, or by spreading the word. From bake sales to personal challenges, every contribution helps us reach more people, particularly in disadvantaged communities, and move closer to a world where everyone has the confidence to succeed with numbers.

Find out more about donating and fundraising

Confidence-building resources

The Big Number Natter

Get your teams talking about how they feel about numbers with our Number Natter guide, conversation starters and editable posters.
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Myth busting statement cards

Use these cards as part of an activity or event to confront some commonly believed maths myths.
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Dr Linda's tips for boosting confidence and overcoming maths anxiety

Dr Linda Papadopoulos is a psychologist and National Numeracy ambassador.

Here she talks about what anxiety is and how it manifests, as well as tips for coping mechanisms and building confidence.

Real life stories 

The stories we hear from adults who overcome lifelong anxieties about numeracy are an inspiration to us, and the range of people that these stories come from shows how widespread this issue is.

Read, watch, and share these stories to show others that, whatever your starting point, we can all build our number confidence, and support others in our communities to feel the same.

Collage of Big Number Natter interview subjects

Resources for schools

For all the Numeracy Champions who are also educators or school teachers, here are the resources for schools:

Family Maths Toolkit

Activities for ages 4-5

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Activities for ages 4-5

Activities for ages 5-6

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Activities for ages 5-6

Activities for ages 6-7

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Activities for ages 6-7

Activities for ages 7-8

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Activities for ages 7-8

Activities for ages 8-9

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Activities for ages 8-9

Activities for ages 9-10

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Activities for ages 9-10

Activities for ages 10-11

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Activities for ages 10-11

Answers to all activities

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Answer sheet

How to talk to young people about financial confidence

Numeracy skills are a vital part of financial confidence. We want pupils to know that understanding numbers will be important for managing their own money in the future.

By talking about everyday maths in simple, practical ways, we can help pupils see how useful numeracy will be in their future lives, and how it will help them with their finances.

Thumbnail preview of the resource

Maths at home – talking about numbers together: 3 November, 7pm

A free webinar for parents, carers and teachers of children aged 5-13

You don’t need to be confident at maths to help your child develop a love of numbers.

Join Liz and Charlie from NRICH for a relaxed and friendly webinar exploring how engaging activities and everyday conversations can help children develop positive attitudes towards maths.

You’ll discover that tapping into children's curiosity through play and discussion can lead to mathematical conversations that every parent or carer can have, regardless of their own maths experience.

Whether you love maths or avoid it, this webinar will be packed with practical ways to support your child’s confidence with numbers. No maths expertise is needed. Just bring a willingness to have a go!

Would you like a volunteer to come to your school and deliver an assembly or class for Number Confidence Week?

Our corporate volunteers come to schools to share their experiences through our ‘My Maths Story’ assembly and/or our ‘Maths in the Real World’ interactive class lesson. It's a great way of raising the profile of maths in your school and helping children see its value, and why they learn it. Why not host a volunteer for Number Confidence Week?

Volunteer delivering a class session

Bunting

Download and print this bunting to decorate your office spaces or community areas, and get in the Number Confidence Week spirit!
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Posters

Use these eye-catching posters to direct people to our website or the National Numeracy Challenge.
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Social graphics

Use these to shout about Number Confidence Week on your channels.
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Screensavers and intranet banners

Download and use these screensavers and email banners to spread the word.
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Use #NumberConfidenceWeek and tag us so we can share your messages! Find us on:

If you have any questions please get in touch at enquiries@nationalnumeracy.org.uk. We hope you will join us this November!

Graphic of a woman holding a phone, saying "Join the conversation: 7-11 November 2022"

Try the National Numeracy Challenge

However you feel about maths, you’re not alone. The National Numeracy Challenge is a free and easy-to-use website you can use to improve your confidence with numbers.   

It’s ideal for brushing up, checking your level, or for catching up on learning you missed, and it’s all about the maths you need in daily life and at work – no algebra or trigonometry.

The National Numeracy Challenge

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We offer learning resources and campaign on the numeracy issue throughout the year.

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