Celebrate National Numeracy Day with free maths games, events and jokes from Alexa

Now in its sixth year, National Numeracy Day has inspired people to take over 650,000 actions to improve their numeracy skills, including over 16,000 downloads of the free resources available through the campaign.

 
Once again, Amazon is delighted to be a lead supporter of National Numeracy Day, and we’re highlighting ways we can all boost our confidence with maths, demonstrating how numbers can change lives at home, work and school.

“At Amazon, no matter what area of our business you work in, whether it’s Alexa, Prime Video, fashion, grocery, or logistics, numeracy skills are essential for ensuring that we deliver for our customers,” said Priyanka Wadhawan, Director of Seller Services at Amazon.

“Having a good understanding of numbers is a critical life skill and we believe everyone across the UK, regardless of age or background, should have access to the resources that will help build number confidence. That’s why we’re incredibly proud to be a lead supporter of National Numeracy Day again this year.”

The UK’s numeracy levels are significantly below the average for developed countries, with 49% of the UK’s working-age population at the expected numeracy levels of a primary school child. Millions of children in the UK leave school lacking number confidence, and 30% of school-leavers (18-24s) feel anxious about using maths and numbers.

Not only does poor numeracy cost the UK economy £25 billion a year, struggling with maths and numbers can make people more vulnerable to debt, unemployment, poor health and fraud – all of which have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis and now, the cost-of-living crisis.

Nurseries, schools, colleges as well as other organisations, workplaces, community groups or individuals can sign up to take part in National Numeracy Day. Here are some free maths activities that everyone can get involved in:

Discover more about National Numeracy Day this month by asking Alexa:

• Alexa, when is National Numeracy Day?
• Alexa, what is National Numeracy Day?
• Alexa, why is maths important?
• Alexa, how do I improve my maths?

Have even more maths related fun with Alexa by saying:

•  Alexa, tell me a maths joke
• Alexa, Rap about pi

The National Numeracy Day Challenge is a free online tool that builds number skills and confidence, and is available for anyone to access.

The challenge features over 300 everyday maths questions, tutorials, and multimedia resources which it adapts to your own individual learning level and signposts you to further support that’s right for you.

You can start in just 10 minutes, and go at your own pace, when and wherever you like! Get started with the National Numeracy Day Challenge.

The Big Number Natter, taking place throughout May, is the only nationwide conversation about numbers. It’s an opportunity to have a chat online about numbers and change lives for the better. Celebrities, experts and people across the UK will be sharing their own number stories on social media.

Get involved by sharing the story behind your lucky number, tips for bagging a bargain, making calculations in your career, or helping kids with homework. Love it or loathe it, everyone has something to say about maths!

By signing up to National Numeracy Day you will also receive access to enter the Number Heroes competition. The competition is designed for children, and aims to help them think about how they will use numbers when they grow up. They can enter a drawing into the competition for a chance to win a fantastic prize for themselves and a prize bundle for their whole school worth over £1,000.

Get the children around you involved and let their imaginations run wild, no matter whether they want to be a vet, train driver, dancer, teacher, engineer or footballer when they grow up, help them use their maths and numbers skills to get there!

Sign up for National Numeracy Day to access the Number Heroes competition.

As a lead supporter of National Numeracy Day on 17 May, Amazon is delighted to share a fantastic range of free resources and activities for all the family that can be found on the National Numeracy Day website.

These include free downloads on talking to adults about maths, overcoming maths anxiety, getting confident with maths at work and helping your children love maths. There are also tonnes of activities designed specifically for children, like maths and dancing with Strictly’s Katya Jones, Rap with slam poet Harry Baker, Baking fun with Great British Bake Off winner Peter Sawkins and making money fun with influencer Mr MoneyJar. And for under 5s there are some amazing activities from Numberblocks.

Explore resources on the National Numeracy Day website.

Anyone can sign up their school, college or organisation and help their community to get number confident.

By signing up, you will receive free, fun materials and resources to use in the build-up to National Numeracy Day and join over 4,000 other organisations to help the nation get on with numbers.

Sign up for your school or sign up for your organisation.

At Amazon, we are committed to helping young people develop the skills they need for their future careers, particularly when it comes to Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

Amazon Future Engineer is our comprehensive childhood-to-career programme that offers children and young adults the opportunity to get involved in free STEM-related activities, training, and apprenticeships. The programme is designed to inspire, educate, and equip people with the tools they need to become the inventors, innovators, and engineers of tomorrow.

The programme includes Class Chats, virtual career talks delivered directly to your classroom by Amazon employees working in diverse fields; the Cyber Robotics Challenge, a free virtual challenge to learn programming basics; and Hour of Code: Dance Party, an interactive dance-themed online coding tutorial that gives primary school pupils the opportunity to build their computer science skills and have fun coding characters to dance to songs from leading artists.

We’ve also recently launched virtual school trips where students can go behind the scenes at an Amazon Fulfilment Centre, to discover how computer science, state-of-the-art engineering, and incredible people deliver products from our online store directly to your doorstep. The tours are completely free and can be accessed on demand.

Get involved with National Numeracy Day today.