July 2nd, 2009
The Grime music star Cleopatra Humphrey, who goes by the (far less interesting) stage name Mz Bratt, talked up the benefits of a good maths education in a recent interview. [Barking and Dagenham Recorder]
“Education is so important, because you should take nothing in this business for granted.
“I’m finding more and more that maths and numeracy are vital when signing record deals and working out what percentages are yours.”
Wise words from the 17-year-old with 10 A-grade GCSEs under her belt. If the likes of Mz Bratt can reinforce the message that numeracy (let alone literacy) skills have benefits in areas that kids might not otherwise expect, it is no bad thing.
We hereby give Mz Bratt the Doesn’t Need Maths-Whizz Award in recognition of her achievements and good attitude. We hope some others in entertainment, who wear their ignorance with seeming pride, take note.
Tags: numeracy, statistics
Posted in Maths, News | No Comments »
June 30th, 2009
Education Secretary Ed Balls today re-iterated the government’s commitment to personal tuition for students falling behind in literacy and numeracy, reported today by the BBC.
The £315m already allocated to the scheme would be disbursed amongst the local education authorities. Parents who felt their children were falling through the cracks, and not getting the needed additional help, would be able to appeal via the courts.
As the BBC reports, this system will build on the ‘making good progress’ pilots, which to date have involved:
…short, sharp bursts of intensive one-to-one tuition on top of normal schooling. Typically children have been signed up for 10 hours of personal tuition.
Classes could run either during or outside school hours, a DCSF spokeswoman said.
It would be immodest to suggest that Maths-Whizz is THE ANSWER TO ED BALLS’ PRAYERS, but it’s incumbent on us to point out that, with our online Tutoring Plus service Balls, Brown, et. al. might get a lot more bang for their buck, and achieve much the same improvement in struggling student maths scores, as if they employed breathing human tutors.
The terms of the tutoring boost sessions described above, including the fact that children would be able to learn in-school or out-, are a good fit with the Maths-Whizz method - which allows students to log on anywhere, anytime, for quick sessions on the maths tutor.
We hope Balls is listening…
Tags: government, numeracy, tutoring
Posted in Maths, News, News & Research | No Comments »
March 19th, 2009
Nice snippet of a news item from Oxford, about using golf lessons to boost numeracy.
Kirtlington professional Andy Taylor will coach in six local schools after receiving an £800 grant from the Golf Foundation.
Taylor’s sessions will teach the sport and look to improve numeracy skills by applying a scoring system relevant to times-tables.
Practitioners and commentators have long needed maths skills to deal with the avalanche of statistics that accompany sports. Whether it’s an understanding of time and lap splits for track athletes, mental maths for darts players or batting averages for baseball players, maths is vital in sport.
We’ll be intrigued to see how Mr Taylor uses times tables to track golf scores, but wish him the best of luck in boosting his charges’ golf and maths at the same time. If golf really is a good walk, spoiled, maybe the maths will make up for it!
Tags: numeracy, sport
Posted in Maths, News, News & Research | No Comments »
December 5th, 2008
“Almost £1.5bn was lost in the UK last year, due to Britons struggling to master the basic skills when it comes to managing money.“
This is, apparently, the staggering cost of poor maths skills in the UK. Maths and English (as even Dizzee Rascal would tell us) are essential for every-day life and, as we reported in June, will keep you healthy, wealthy, and wise in adulthood. (Actually, we’re not sure about the healthy bit.) This is Money reports on a LearnDirect campaign to improve adult literacy and numeracy with their Spotlight challenge, called ‘Ready When You Are‘.
Ready When You Are, with Johnny and Eamonn
TV’s perma-tanned and velvet-smooth Eamonn Holmes joins forces with the one and only perky Johnny Ball (he of Think of a Number, 1977-1984, and our very own Maths-Whizz promotional animation, 2005). Ready When You Are has Eamonn and Johnny posing English and Maths questions, respectively. The score at the end might help you work out if you qualify for one of LearnDirect’s adult numeracy and literacy courses.
You can take the test, complete with Mastermind-style mood music, online. Whether you come out as a Maths-Whizz, or a Number-Dunce, we’d like to think you can help secure your child’s future financial literacy and general numeracy with our fun maths lessons and comprehensive online tutor!
Tags: numeracy
Posted in Fun, Maths, News, News & Research, Tutoring | 3 Comments »
