A BELFAST primary school's use of a new maths learning tool is boosting numeracy and pupil confidence too, teachers claim.
St Oliver Plunkett PS has embraced interactive educational resource, Izak9, to help children engage more with maths.
Staff have said they are seeing an increased performance in both numeracy and literacy as well as boosted confidence and the overall personal development of children.
Izak9 consists of 27 cubes with different combinations of colour, number and shape which have been proven to increase pupil performance by injecting enjoyment into numeracy through practical learning.
Developed in Northern Ireland, it is designed to stimulate mathematical thinking and interaction among pupils through task-setting and assistance from animated on-screen characters named Helix and Abacus.
Joint research by Trinity College Dublin and Queen's University Belfast found that pupils' enjoyment of mathematics was significantly boosted by using the resource.
P6 teacher, Clare Enright said the biggest benefit of using Izak9 in the classroom "is that it is fun".
"Coming from a literacy background, I always thought of numeracy as a more academic, pen and paper subject - with lots of rote learning and recalling facts," she said.
"But Izak9 means maths isn't like that - it's fun, exciting, interactive, practical, hands-on learning with opportunities for children to practice maths without the fear of failure."
St Oliver Plunkett PS was among the first schools to use Izak9 in teaching and learning, said its creator Franz Schlindwein, a former maths teacher from Derry.
"Providing creative learning through creative education is the ethos of St Oliver Plunkett PS and it is easy to see how they live up to that by adopting innovation in their classrooms," he said.
"I was amazed at how teachers at the school have developed the use of the resource."
Pupils and teachers at Christ the King PS in Omagh are also taking the pencil and copybook out of learning maths by using Izak9.
Teacher Gabriel Brogan said the interactive cubes were helping pupils and also teachers to live up to the school's mission statement of `be the best that you can be'.
"Sometimes pupils associate maths as paper and pencil exercises and when they are using Izak9, they sometimes forget they are learning through maths, as they are captured by the resource. Izak9 creates a fun element in numeracy - children are continually learning new concepts with it," he said.
