National Numeracy Day 2025: Join in and build confidence with numbers

Wednesday 21st May 2025 is National Numeracy Day: The Money Edition. For the first time, National Numeracy Day will focus on managing money with confidence by improving numeracy and maths skills.

Numbers can worry us sometimes. So many of us have mixed feelings and experiences about mathematics, numbers and solving problems. Some of us see numbers as exciting, something fun to play with and feel confident with. Others feel a sense of panic and worry that we won’t get things right. We all have different feelings around numbers. Encouraging us to talk and think about numbers in a positive way can be really life changing. It’s all about building up that confidence.

At Just Finance Foundation, we are constantly thinking of new ways in which we can help children to build confidence around money, something which relies on number confidence too. At the heart of what we do is a desire to help children develop an understanding of the value of the money they have, as a way of helping them realise how they can confidently make decisions in the future as adults. Just imagine how much we could achieve if we all had healthy feelings about money, the confidence to make good decisions and the understanding to know how money works.

We really want children to talk about money more. To flex those money knowledge muscles and be confident in making decisions, now and in the future.

A really good place to start is by having some conversations with your friends and family about money. You could talk about what makes you happy about money, or what your first memory of using money was and how that made you feel. Imagine yourself in a situation where you really need to find out what the best thing to do with your money would be. Perhaps you could think about what you would do if you had a £10 note right now … what would you use it for? What would you spend? Would you do anything different? Would you save? Would you be generous in some way.

So many decisions!

In the story of Milo’s Money,  a young dinosaur called Milo, receives some money for the first time and needs help with deciding what to do with it. He learns so much about numbers and money as he talks to friends and family.

If you like, you could have a go at playing the Milo’s Money game. In the game, Milo goes shopping for his family. He has a set amount of money to spend and a list of things to buy. How much will he spend and what will he do with the change he has? These are all the things you can explore and make decisions about in the game.

Talking helps us to develop our understanding, and it helps us to become used to thinking about things.

We think it’s really important to start having those conversations, and have them regularly, so that we all get used to making decisions using money. It’ll help us begin to understand those numbers on the coins and notes and what value they have.

So, the best thing you can do this National Numeracy Day, is to talk … about numbers … and about money!

If you have any really great conversations about money, or make some good decisions about money, or if you have any ideas about what you would do with £10 right now – why not post it on social media and tag us so that we can read your ideas too.