3 December

Fidelity International volunteers with National Numeracy

Fidelity International team members became National Numeracy volunteers during Number Confidence Week, visiting four primary schools in Kent, Essex, London and Warrington to help get children thinking about maths in the real world.

From heading up two ‘My Maths Story Assemblies’ to supporting five ‘Maths in the Read World Interactive Classroom Sessions’, Fidelity International employees have been busy helping 455 young people engage with maths and numeracy.

On delivering a My Maths Story assembly, Paul Adigun, Associate Director – Advice at Fidelity said:

 “The assembly went well. The children had many questions, and the lead teacher was also very clear about why I was there and what the outcomes were.”  

As Corporate Partners of The Lord Mayor’s Appeal, Fidelity International are given an opportunity to engage with initiatives and events that align with their corporate responsibility strategy. Highlighting Fidelity’s commitment to ‘making a difference to communities local to our offices and where our employees live’, an introduction to National Numeracy and their Numeracy Volunteer scheme was an ideal fit.

National Numeracy’s Number Confidence Week took place from 4-8 November and was celebrated throughout the month with the theme of 'numeracy for equality'. Empowering children to get on with numbers so they can reach their potential, Fidelity’s sessions at primary schools including sharing their numeracy journey, what their job role entails and what they do in their spare time that involves numeracy.  

In the classroom sessions, Fidelity volunteers helped a teacher to meet real life and fictional characters to explore the maths they use in their jobs and hobbies. Children were split into small groups and took part in a carousel activity, with the groups moving around the classroom to visit different characters in turn.

Before visiting their allocated schools, the Fidelity volunteers completed a 90-minute online training session covering numeracy in the UK, maths anxiety, how to support number confidence and develop positive attitudes towards maths. Paul said “During the training I found the heartfelt individual stories about feelings towards numeracy most helpful”. 

Rahel Davidoff, Maths Lead at Lubavitch Girls School, London who was visited by a local Fidelity International volunteer, alongside other National Numeracy volunteers said:

“The girls were put in groups, and each had an opportunity to ask the volunteers questions about how they use maths in their work and lastly, they wrote and drew how they themselves use maths in their own life - baking, time keeping when going to school, looking at train schedules, sports and more. The atmosphere was buzzing as the girls were all so happily engaged.” 

Learn more about becoming a Corporate Partner here 

Learn more about National Numeracy here