Designing your
numeracy strategy
Designing your
numeracy strategy
This resource will guide you through the process of forming your numeracy strategy by focusing on each section of your strategy individually.
Why do we need a numeracy strategy?
The purpose of a numeracy strategy is:
to set aims and objectives that define your aspirations.
to form a clear, strategic approach to developing numeracy acros the whole school.
to set expectations and build accountability.
to identify and define processes and working practices that you intend to embed.
Although there is no rule about the sections of a strategy, an effective skills strategy usually consists of the following sections:
FAQ
You may wish to form an overall strategy for skills, where all three cross-curricular skills are developed according to the same aims. This could be an effective approach when trying to implement similar improvement for all three skills. Within your strategy you would need to clearly differentiate between the implementation models for literacy, numeracy and digital competence, as there will probably be some differences between certain elements of the three.
Alternatively, you may wish to form three separate strategies; one for each of the cross curricular skills. This could be an effective approach if the current baseline of standards is vastly different in all three. The management of these strategies could be easier as the aims that you will be working towards will be different, depending on the skill.
The more traditional approach would be to create a word document. Some schools opt for using an online infographic platform, such as Adobe Creative Cloud Express (Hwb), Canva or Piktochart. Another effective way of documenting your strategy would be by forming a website using software such as Google Sites. By creating a website, you could organise the content of your strategy effectively, and in the future, add any evidence or reports to support your impact measures.
A strategy is a method of managing change over the long term and usually runs for anywhere between 1 and 5 years. You may have to adapt your strategy as time progresses to ensure that it is still effective.
Ultimately, the responsibility for the strategy sits with the headteacher. They will ensure that the strategy will be given a sufficient status of importance and that the accountability structure that is identified is being stuck to. The management of the strategy will usually lie with a middle leader, such as the literacy, numeracy or digital lead. The middle leader should have a contact person from the SLT to ensure that information on progress is regularly discussed and passed on to the SLT. When monitoring, evaluating and reviewing the impact and progress of the strategy, there should be clearly identified roles and responsibilities to ensure that these processes are fully supported by the school's leadership.