The Inspire Foundation and The Farsons Foundation have recently teamed up to reach a mutual goal - that of facilitating the understanding of mathematical concepts for children who have difficulties in the area.
"Creating a better world requires teamwork, partnerships, and collaboration," explained Mr Bryan A. Gera, Chairman of The Farsons Foundation. "With this in mind we have joined forces with The Inspire Foundation to help one of their professional employees become an accredited Numicon trainer. Numicon is a new approach to teach children numeracy using a more visual and multisensory approach."
Accredited trainers help to train and support staff using Numicon to teach children in a whole class approach or using one to one intervention. Inspire already has one accredited trainer but as the demand grows so does the need for more staff members to become accredited and trained in this approach. With an additional professional becoming accredited, more teachers and educators will be reached to share this knowledge and help children.
"Numicon provides visual and structured imagery that children with such difficulties understand better, faster and easier," explained Ms. Rosette Gatt, Numicon Trainer at The Inspire Foundation. "All children benefit from the Numicon approach but those who find numbers and the number system abstract, will benefit even more because of its visual and structured imagery. Activities have been developed from direct experiences with children making the teaching approach more appealing to the children's strengths and less reliable on their auditory capacities. This is done through multisensory activities using patterned shapes, rods, number lines, and a broad range of everyday experiences and contexts. Feeling, seeing, thinking, speaking, reading, and writing all come together."
The Farsons Foundation will be funding the training for another staff member from Inspire to become a certified Numicon Trainer by Oxford University Press (OUP). This will ensure high quality training that is later delivered to professionals and parents which will enable them to help children reach their potential. "Teachers who attend Numicon workshops have a much higher multiplier effect as they are then able to share their knowledge with their entire class. At the moment more than 500 children are benefitting from this multisensory programme that is being used as a whole class approach in their schools," added Ms. Gatt.
The Farsons Group has always recognised its corporate responsibility towards all stakeholders and the wider community, having long supported a number of deserving initiatives and charitable causes. Through this initiative The Farsons Foundation is addressing an educational objective within the context of social solidarity.
The Inspire Foundation on the other hand works with children with learning difficulties, disabilities and socially excluded youngsters who are failing in their education because of lack of resources and opportunities to learn.
"In order to make things happen for people with disabilities, and in order to make them happen fast, we need many people and organisations to work together. Corporations that embrace the benefits of cooperating with one another, can help make this world a better place," said Mr. Antonello Gauci, CEO, Inspire.
"Change is effectively impossible without such collaboration and cooperation," said Mr Bryan A. Gera, Chairman of The Farsons Foundation. "We are therefore extremely happy to be able to collaborate with entities such as The Inspire foundation to reach out to children and people who need help," added Mr. Gera.