ABSTRACT
IF YOU HAVE NOT READ Chapter 13 please turn back to it and read the first few paragraphs as they are an introduction to both literacy and numeracy. Both are areas essential for both school work and life and both have had considerable attention in the last few years. All that applies in general to English also applies to mathematics. You need copies of the school policy, you need to talk to the coordinator or head of department about your work, you need to be able to attend the staff meetings in the subject and be paid to do so. You need access to a computer connected to the internet as many of the resources are now accessible only through the web. You need to be sure of your own skills knowledge and understanding in the area. Mathematics is a subject many of us ducked at school: we found it hard, often unintelligible and usually irrelevant to what we wanted to do or be. However, there is now a tremendous effort to make it understandable and relevant. We need to be numerate to understand cooking recipes, healthy food data, green issues and the associated statistics, be able to use bank accounts, even understand our payslips. Consider undertaking some kind of Level 2 course in mathematics if you are feeling at all inadequate in this area. Also, do not be frightened of asking if you do not understand: you will not be alone – if you do not understand it is quite likely that the pupils won’t understand either!
