National Numeracy Day 2023
Building brighter futures through confidence with numbers
Another year, another National Numeracy Day!
It's been one year since Capital One UK announced its strategic partnership with National Numeracy, a charity helping children and adults in the UK to feel more confident with everyday maths so they can fulfil their potential at work, home and school.
On 17th May 2023, we celebrated our second year being a Lead Supporter for National Numeracy Day helping to make it bigger and better than ever. As well supporting National Numeracy's campaigning, there was plenty going on across the business to help support its associates and communities to become more confident with maths.
Lucy Marie Hagues, CEO at Capital One UK communicated the importance of maths to all associates to kick off the day. She said:
“Numeracy confidence is a big challenge in the UK and it holds too many people back from fulfilling their potential. As a lender and responsible business, a more numerate society is a win-win situation for us. It leads to better outcomes for customers, a wider pool of talent to draw from, and thriving communities with everything they need to lead successful financial lives.”
So what went on at Capital One UK?
On 18th May, Katya Jones, Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer and National Numeracy Ambassador hosted a ‘Big Number Natter’ with four Capital One UK associates to shine a sparkly light on all things numbers and discuss their experience of maths growing up, and in their career.
Capital One UK also saw a whole host of Numeracy Volunteering sessions during May to bolster the awareness of National Numeracy Day.
As part of its corporate volunteering ‘Numeracy Champions’ scheme, 11 associates hosted assemblies and classroom sessions across eight primary schools, speaking to more than 1,000 children about the importance of maths skills in the real world when they grow up.
Brogan Roache, Associate and Numeracy Champion at Capital One UK said:
“I had so much fun recently delivering an assembly and classroom session at a local primary school, especially so close to National Numeracy Day! Although I was nervous at first, the children were really engaged and asked some great questions. The most rewarding part of volunteering for me was seeing children get excited about Maths, sometimes for the first time. The realisation for them - and for me! - about how often we use numbers every day and in how many different ways it was really eye opening.”
Claire Gibbons, Associate and Numeracy Champion at Capital One UK said:
"What a fantastic morning presenting the National Numeracy assembly at a local school in Chesterfield. The teachers made me feel so welcome and the kids were super engaged and asked some great (and funny!) questions. I can't wait to do it again and have already signed up for two more sessions!"
Tom Etherington, Associate and Numeracy Champion at Capital One UK said:
“I had a wonderful morning delivering an assembly and classroom session to the children at English Martyrs, made even more special in that it was my old school! It bought back so many fond memories. The children really enjoyed the sessions, asked some fantastic questions and were really engaged in the activities to help boost their confidence in numbers!”
CEO Lucy-Marie Hagues also wrote an inspiring piece for associates and UK Finance, of which she is a board member, discussing why maths confidence matters and her experience of maths growing up.
“Between being ‘bad’ and being ‘good’ at maths, there’s often something small: a story about who we are that stayed with us; an impression formed by someone with preconceptions; a line that was drawn on a page of names with our name just above or just below. Often, our feelings about numbers are formed early – and they’re associated with moments of powerful emotion. Moments we felt stupid, were laughed at - or felt clever and better.”
National Numeracy Day 2023 was a huge success, for the charity and for Capital One UK and its associates; the strategic partnership will continue to flourish and bring awareness to how important maths is, both in work and in the real world.
If you're interested, join over 500,000 adults who have registered to check their numeracy level and start improving their skills and confidence, anywhere, any time with The National Numeracy Challenge!
The National Numeracy Challenge is based on maths in the real world - at home, work or supporting children. And it's FREE!