How every school subject improves your numeracy skills

Numeracy isn’t just the ability to add up or do maths problems in class! It’s being able to understand and work with numbers in everyday situations.

Whether you’re managing your personal budget, planning a trip or looking for a good deal, numeracy is an essential skill for life. It’s also highly valued by employers, as it shows you can think logically and solve problems using numbers.

‘Numeracy isn’t just the ability to solve maths problems, it’s being able to use numbers in everyday life – an essential workplace skill’

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What is numeracy?

Numeracy is more than just basic arithmetic. It means being comfortable with numbers and being able to use them in practical ways to make decisions and solve problems.

It involves the ability to:

• Understand numbers: Interpreting and using numbers in different situations.
• Make calculations: Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.
• Interpret data: Understanding graphs, tables and charts and using this data to inform your decisions.
• Estimate: Knowing when an approximate amount is good enough.
• Solve real-world problems: Solving everyday challenges such as budgeting.

Numeracy at school

When you think of numeracy, you probably think of maths. And it’s true – numbers are fundamental to maths. But numeracy is a big part of many other subjects too.

• Arts: Believe it or not, numeracy has its place in the arts. In art and design, you may need to calculate dimensions for paintings, sculptures and photography.
• Humanities: In history, you’ll need an intuitive handle on when events happened and how dates relate to each other.
• Science: You’ll often use numbers to conduct experiments, measure data and analyse results in biology, chemistry and physics.
• Social sciences: In subjects like sociology, you’ll need to understand and interpret real-world data, such as graphs and tables.

Using numeracy at work

From budgeting to decision-making, numeracy is one of the most valuable and sought-after employability skills.

Here's how numeracy comes into play at work:

• Finances: Whether you’re working in a shop or managing a project, you’ll use numeracy to keep track of budgets, expenses, profits – even dates and deadlines.
• Data analysis: Many roles involve interpreting data, whether that’s analysing sales figures, market activity or societal trends.
• Problem-solving: In any job, you'll likely need to use numbers to solve problems – particularly in areas such as construction, engineering and software.

Even if your job isn’t directly related to numbers, having good numeracy skills can help you perform everyday tasks more effectively and make you more attractive to employers.

How to improve your numeracy skills

The good news is you’re already using your number skills in many areas of life – not least, every day at school! Here are a few ways to get better at numeracy:

• Practise regularly: The more you practice, the more confident you’ll feel. You can practice basic math skills using apps, games, or even real-world problems like managing your pocket money or earnings from your Saturday job.
• Use numbers in daily life: Try using numeracy when you’re out shopping, cooking, or planning a trip. For example, you could calculate discounts, convert measurements in recipes or figure out travel costs. If you tend to lead this to parents/carers or siblings, why not give it a go yourself?
• Use apps and digital tools: There are tons of websites, videos, and apps designed to improve numeracy skills – a lot of them are pretty good fun. The more interactive, the better! Even videogaming uses aspects of numeracy such as problem-solving.
• Ask for help: If you find certain areas of numeracy tricky, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Teachers, friends, or online forums can offer explanations or tips on how to improve. That’s what they’re there for!

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