University finance team helps schoolchildren with the numbers game
Posted on 2 March 2005
But a new community project is seeing eight of the Finance Department dealing with smaller but equally important figures for children at nearby Osbaldwick Primary School.
The staff, including accountants and members of the payments office team, are spending a lunch hour once a fortnight until May running a maths club for the pupils to help them to improve their numeracy in a relaxed environment.
This project is already proving its worth
Mrs Lesley Barringer, Osbaldwick School
Liz Crook-Dawkins, one of the volunteers, said: "We play different board games all designed to reinforce their basic addition and subtraction skills. It's a fascinating exercise.
"We deal with numbers all the time at work and we are thoroughly enjoying doing something so different. The children are also learning a lot from contact with people from a different world.
"The volunteers all received training in the modern methods of teaching numeracy. The style of teaching now is very different: there’s much more group work and discussion than when most of us were taught."
Mrs Lesley Barringer, Head Teacher at Osbaldwick Primary, said: "This project is already proving its worth – the pupils are learning and enjoying themselves tremendously with an extra person around to help with their questions. We’re delighted with the scheme."
Notes to editors:
- Photocall: University finance staff will be playing board games with pupils at Osbaldwick Primary School, Monday 7 March, 2005 at 12.45pm. Photographers should ask for Lesley Barringer.
- Active York is one of a number of ways in which the University of York encourages and supports volunteering in York and North Yorkshire. With more than 9,000 students and 2,000 staff, the University has a pool of enthusiastic, committed and skilled volunteers that can make a real difference to the community. Active York provides members of the University with access to small-scale funding to develop new means of supporting the community. Active York is the University of York's distinctive response to the Higher Education Funding Council for England's Active Community Fund.