Parents of pupils at a Bradford school are to go back to the classroom for special maths workshops.
The informal sessions are being held next week at St Walburga's RC Primary school in Shipley to help parents support their children with their numeracy work at Key Stages One and Key Stage Two.
Organised by headteacher Mary Connor, and three other members of staff, the workshops will include an overview of maths as well as developing mental strategies which parents can use to support their children at home.
There will also be the opportunity to carry out some activities and look at examples of work in different stages of maths development.
The events are supporting Bradford Council's b someone campaign to mark 2009 as a year of education.
The first strand of this focuses on the important role parents, carers and adults play in a child's educational development. Numeracy and counting are one of the key areas adults are being encouraged to incorporate into simple, daily activities to help children boost their skills.
Mrs Connor said: "As a community we realise the importance of working in partnership with our parents and we have organised these workshops in response to a need identified in a recent survey of our parents.
"We hope that these will be the first in a series of workshops all intended to help parents understand how maths is taught nowadays in school and to give them the necessary skills to support their children.
"We are delighted with the response to date and hope that parent feedback from the event will help us with developing this area of provision for our parents with a view to providing further workshops on the teaching of calculations later in the school year."
Coun Michael Kelly, the Council's Executive Member for Services to Children and Young People, said: "The b someone campaign has really taken off and it's great to see schools, children's centres and other organisations getting on board and supporting it.
"These workshops are spot on for the first part of this drive and I'm sure parents and pupils alike will benefit."
Media Relations Officer:
Carolyne Coyle
Telephone: 01274 432400
Fax: 01274 432005
Email: press.communications@bradford.gov.uk
Date: 26.02.09
