Oasis Academy Oldham students take part in attempting a Guinness World Record on National Numeracy Day

Recently, KS3 students from Oasis Academy Oldham took part in a range of activities to celebrate national numeracy day 2022. Events included solving crimes with maths, to a mathematical scavenger hunt, and a drawing competition.

Students had a day full of maths and numeracy all with the aim of helping them see the importance of maths in everyday life.

National Numeracy Day is part of the National Numeracy organisation, an independent charity established in 2012 to help raise low levels of numeracy among both adults and children and to promote the importance of everyday maths skills. Their aim is to challenge negative attitudes, influence public policy and offer practical ways of helping adults and children improve their numeracy - in the community, the workplace and formal education.

Perhaps the most exciting event of the day took place in the academy’s Year 7 classes where students excitedly took part in a world record attempt. Before the event students were asked to learn a 'number roll' of the five times table, which involved them learning a song and, in the teacher's opinion, quite a complex dance, they were then asked to join in with a live stream with schools across the country to attempt to produce the largest times table number roll in history.

During the live stream, students were excited to see special guests such as Strictly Come Dancing's Katya Jones, TV mathematician Bobby Seagull and even the education secretary Nadim Zahawi. The live stream gave students a chance to reflect on the importance of maths as a way of teaching your resilience and discipline and showing you that any problem can be solved when you break it down into small steps, and you don't give up.

When it came time to try for the world's largest number roll our students were so excited that in some groups they sang the song three times rather than two, and their hard work was definitely worth the effort when they heard the official Guinness monitor tell them that they had indeed achieved the world record, the cheers could be heard across the maths department and their world record certificates will be something they cherish for a long time to come.

You can read more about National Numeracy via their website HERE.