Let’s Count with CCEA’s refreshed learning resource

Let's Count! is a learning resource developed by CCEA in partnership with Census 2021, supported by NISRA, providing suggested lessons for teachers, using real-life data to explore life in Northern Ireland and how it is changing.

This resource, available at www.ccea.org.uk/census, uses free census data to support the development of skills relevant to Mathematics and Numeracy, The World Around Us, and Personal Development and Mutual Understanding.

The Let’s Count! ready-to-use lessons are based around the themes of Population, Settlements, Transport, and Occupations with materials tailored to the needs of Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1, and Key Stage 2 learners. They include presentations, activities, interactive games, chart creators, and posters. Irish Medium versions of all pupil resources are available.

Permanent Secretary at the Department of Education Dr Mark Browne said:

“The core cross-curriculum skills of literacy, numeracy and ICT are crucial to effective lifelong learning and in preparing our children and young people to become empowered citizens and to contribute to the economy. Our flexible curriculum provides space for our teaching workforce to deliver resources such as Let’s Count in a creative and innovative way.  We know how vital numeracy is to our children both now and for the future and resources such as these will further augment the seamless incorporation of mathematics across the curriculum.

“International studies such as TIMSS highlight that our primary age pupils have excellent numeracy skills –outperforming 51 of the 58 participating countries in the last 2019 study.  We know that we can’t take this for granted and continuing to develop innovative resources and practice around numeracy will support this trend to continue.  The use of real NISRA data about our own population will increase relevance to the learner, piquing their interest and enhancing their educational experience.”

CCEA Chief Executive Gerry Campbell commented:

“CCEA first launched Let’s Count! in 2020 and has been working closely with Census 2021 and NISRA to enhance the resource with newly released data to provide an up to date and accurate learning tool for teachers and students. 

“The resource encourages children to explore and discover more about the world around them while building on skills such as managing information, problem solving and critical thinking.”

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency’s Chief Executive, Philip Wales, said:

“It’s great for NISRA to be continuing our partnership with CCEA on the Let’s Count resource. The Census is a vital resource which helps us to understand the society we live in, and it’s brilliant to be able to bring it into the classroom for the next generation of school children. I hope these key learning resources will be a help to teachers and bring insights to students across the country.”

For further details on how classes can explore lessons around the Northern Ireland Census visit www.ccea.org.uk/census