Trouble with Numbers tonight on ITV from 7:30pm to 8:00pm: The programme features brief clips of I PARA in Kuwait/Iraq in 2003, and shows the versatility of serving and former members of Airborne Forces. The Charity National Numeracy (nationalnumeracy.org.uk/home/index.html) ,which greatly assisted in the making of the programme, has as its CEO Mike Ellicock, ex 1 PARA. About Mike Ellicock CEO of National Numeracy - Mike has put resilience, grit and a growth mindset into practice across a range of domains. In sport, he represented Great Britain as an oarsman and a triathlete. In the military, he commissioned into The Parachute Regiment and led his platoon in a hostage rescue in Sierra Leone and in the invasion of Iraq. In business he gained an MBA and spent an informative two years working in the City before joining Numicon, the innovative maths teaching approach, as Managing Director in March 2008. Supported by a brilliant team, the company grew rapidly and was sold to Oxford University Press in 2010. At Numicon Mike witnessed first-hand the transformational power of effective maths learning; many children using the Numicon approach as part of Every Child Counts made over 20 months gain in ‘maths age’ over a 12 week intervention. Keen to make an impact beyond primary, Mike chaired a steering group to identify the best way to bring an unrelenting spotlight onto the importance of numeracy for individuals and for the UK as a whole – and National Numeracy launched as a charity in March 2012. With the launch of the National Numeracy Challenge in March 2014, the research collaboration with the Behavioural Insights Team and the incorporation of National Mathematics Partnership into National Numeracy, Mike believes that we now have a real opportunity to start to tackle the biggest single education and skills issue facing the UK. Mike is married with three young daughters and is a governor of a local primary school. As a recent (not to be repeated!) test of grit, he ran a marathon with a 40lbs pack in 3h25 to break the Guinness World Record by 16min and in doing so raised over £30k for the Parachute Regiment Charity. In the programme Jonathan Maitland looks at the problem of poor numeracy among the UKs population. Is it stopping people from achieving their full potential, and even affecting our economy? Around half the UKs working population has the maths ability expected of a primary school child, and 80 per cent would struggle to pass GCSE. Many experts saying it could be costing the British economy over 20 billion pounds every year.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 14:24:22 +0000