Maths classes for adults take parents back to the classroom

How confident would you be if you were asked to tackle some long division?

For some people, the prospect of doing it for the first time since school so they can help their children or grandchildren with homework would fill them with dread.

So some parents and grandparents are going back to school to assist pupils at Christ the Redeemer Primary School in Dunmurry.

They have also been surprised at just how much fun learning numeracy can be and how different it is from memories of maths from their own schooldays.

Andrea Adams is going to the class to help her grandson, who is autistic, believes the classes are “invaluable”.

There is an added reason for Andrea to take part.

“My daughter passed away two years ago and I was going through a hard time,” she explained.

The school’s parent support worker Alison Coleman found out and invited Andrea to join in with the classes.

Christ the Redeemer, with almost 700 pupils, has a ‘parent hub’ where parents and grandparents can meet and get one-to-one support from Ms Coleman.

“This is just so invaluable,” Andrea said.

“Whenever I was going through school even with my own children we didn’t have resources like this.

“I hope it goes on for a long time.”

Andrea said learning maths now was very different from what she remembered from her own school days.

“The way of learning has completely changed from how I would have learned it in school,” she said.

“We would have had a teacher standing at the top of the room and pointing to the board and telling us ‘this is how it’s done’.

“And you hoped you didn’t get brought up to the front as you hadn’t done it right!”

Trisha O’Connor has come to the class to help her son, who is in primary one.

“Everything is obviously different these days compared to whenever I was in school,” she said.

“So even the way we’re able to play games – counting games, different colours – completely different from whenever I was younger.

“I think that is going to benefit him, and it’s benefitting myself as well.

“Here you’re in a group, and it’s like a safe space and, you know, you’re making friends.

“Sometimes there is a bit of a stigma around maths and stuff like that, so I want my son to be able to realise that it’s OK, we can do it in fun ways.”

The parents are studying, too, for a Level 1 qualification in numeracy through the Open College Network (OCN).

Class tutor Kim Mead, from People First, told BBC News NI that making maths fun was important.

“This qualification is designed around sensory and play,” she said.

“We want the parents to mirror what’s going on in the classroom, so it’s important for them to gain confidence to know what way the children are being taught today.

“So the qualification is based around parents getting rid of the anxiety, having their confidence enhanced, and having the courage to sit with their children.

“It’s using things that we take for granted every day.

“The likes of counting buses, counting steps, counting stairs, helping with the groceries.

“It’s embedding in the family that it’s OK to continue learning.”

So the parents and grandparents benefit, but according to Christ the Redeemer’s vice-principal Nicola McKeown, the pupils do too – in a big way.

“When school, home and community work together the benefits for our pupils are immense,” she said.

“Basically our parents were telling us ‘can you help us at home?’

“Our whole aim behind it is ensuring that the classroom practices that our teachers deliver can be replicated at home.

“It not only builds the self-confidence for the pupil, but it also builds the self-confidence of the parent.

“When we can connect school and home that makes a better well-rounded child.

“And ultimately, that feeling of success feeds back into the classroom.”