Student 1

I love numeracy because it helps to position my ball just right so I can get a good goal.

Student 2

Literacy is important to me because it allows me to express my creativity through writing.

Student 3

I like numeracy because it's needed to become an architect, which is what I hope to become in the future.

Student 4

I love literacy because I love using my imagination and writing stories. I just love reading because it takes me to another world.

Student 5

I like numeracy more because I use it every day, like when I use it at the canteen. I can see how much I can afford, how much I get in change, and to see if I have enough for tomorrow to get an ice block.

Student 6

I like literacy, AKA reading books, because it helps me get my brain smarter.

Student 7

I like literacy because it helps me be creative and know who I am.

Student 8

I like numeracy because it can help me find the perfect angle to get the perfect goal, and also helps me keep track of all the goals that I get.

Student 9

Literacy lets me read and write my own storybooks and draw wonderful pictures.

Student 10

Without numeracy, I couldn't complete my HSC major work for timber.

Student 11

I like reading and going on adventures.

Student 12

I love numeracy. When I play soccer, I use angles to aim my kicks and count how many goals I've scored.

Student 13

I like numeracy because I like to challenge myself and solve equations.

Student 14

I love literacy because it teaches you how to write and spell, and I also like reading "Dog Man" because they're so, so funny.

Student 15

I love numeracy because numeracy is all numbers and numbers are everywhere.

Student 16

Literacy allows me to express my creativity.

Student 17

I love numeracy because I can count by twos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10.

Student 18

I enjoy literacy because I get lost in my imagination when I write stories.

Student 19

I like both. Because I like literacy, because I like reading books and writing books, and I like numeracy because it helps me win Uno and count my pocket money.

[Toddler reading]

Narrator

Literacy and Numeracy week is a way to celebrate all we do to support the important skills of literacy and numeracy. And as I look around at all the ways we use reading, writing, numbers, listening, and speaking every day, I've got a sneaky feeling that literacy and numeracy actually is all around.

Film director

Today I used literacy to proofread the script, and I used numeracy to number the shot list.

Beekeeper

I use numeracy all the time for beekeeping, because we have to do things like predict the numbers of bees in a box to make sure they have enough space to live in.

Soccer coach

I need to do lots of reading about coaching activities, coaching styles. I need to do lots of communication with my team players, parents, with the club.

Wind farm developer

We use numeracy every day when we are looking at our wind speeds, as well as when we are determining where wind turbines should go, and how we are going to build them.

Olympian/Snowboarder

I use literacy to communicate feedback between myself and my coaches to get better at snowboarding.

Pilates instructor

In Pilates, we have to count how many repetitions we're doing, how many exercises we're doing,

Barista

And then weigh the grind that comes out of the grinder, and then make sure we get enough volume of water.

Industrial Arts teacher

This one comes out at 595 millimetres, which then I can use to cut my timber for the curved door that we're going to make.

Chef

I need to read an order so I can prepare the food.

Pastry chef

And we use numeracy to weigh up all the ingredients and weigh up the doughs, to work out the quantity of cakes so we can make as a batch.

Doctor

I use literacy to write and read a lot of letters, and how to remember to spell a lot of very difficult words.

Clothing designer

Working out every day how much fabric I need for a particular garment, or perhaps figuring out how it can best fit someone.

Firefighter

I use numeracy skills to calculate water pressure, flow rates, and the amount of firefighting foam needed for different types of fires.

Ski technician

Today I used numeracy to calculate the DIN setting and the pressure on the binding.

Lawyer

I use literacy every day in my work in writing and reading contracts to make sure that we understand what the parties are agreeing to.

Farmer

I use numeracy to work out how much to feed my horse.

Hearing clinic nurse

I use literacy every day in communicating with my patients about the procedure that I do here, and their health.

Builder

I use numeracy to work out how many joists I need.

Farmer

I'm a farmer and I use my numeracy skills every day to count my cows.

[Teacher] Literacy is everything, it's everywhere in life.

[High school student] You use it every day.

[Primary student] Like reading and writing.

[Teacher] Texting, emails.

[Primary student] Being able to talk to people.

[Teacher] The ability to have chats with my mates and communicate.

[Primary student 1] Why can't skeletons sky dive?

[Primary student 2] Why?

[Primary student 1] They don't have the guts. [laughs]

[Primary student] I think numeracy would be important so I could know the time.

[Primary student] Mathematics and working with numbers.

[Primary student] Where you pay money and stuff.

[High school student] Numeracy is the ability to utilise mathematics in everyday life.

[Teacher] Oh, something as simple as looking at the fruit bowl, estimating, "Do I have enough apples to survive the next two 2 with all my children?"

[Teacher] Adding up the amount, taking the money to the cashier, counting it up and making sure that I'm giving them the correct amount.

[Primary student] When I have children, I'll teach them numeracy to become more smart like me.

[Primary student] That could be, that could be useful.

[High school student] In maths, we use literacy, like to understand the questions.

[High school student] To listen to the teacher, follow instructions.

[High school student] And then in PDH we use them in theory and then we use them, like when we're talking to teammates in prac, then we communicate.

[Primary student] Well, I like soccer and I like, we'll have to be on time. So like go to training and go to all the games on time.

[Teacher] It's something that we use in our everyday life.

[Teacher] Catching buses and, you know, working out if you wanna have dinner ready at a particular time.

[Teacher] Write a shopping list, you know, making sure I get all the groceries correct.

[Primary student 1] What's a chicken’s favourite food?

[Primary student 2] I'm not sure.

[Primary student 1] Bok-choy.

[Primary student] Well, you need a lot of literacy to write, and you need good vocabulary.

[Primary student] Floccinaucinihilipilification.

[Teacher] Oh, antidisestablishmentarianism.

[High school student] Onomatopoeia.

[High school student] Yeah.

[Primary student] Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

[Group] Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

[High school student] Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. I think it's a fear of long words, ironically.

[Primary student] The biggest number I know is 999 quintillion.

[Teacher] Googolplex?

[Teacher] A million billion.

[High school student 1 ] Dactillion, I think that's the number.

[High school student 2] Duodactillion, I believe.

[High school student 1] Ah, one up me.

[High school student] 1 katrillion, 8 thousand and 62 billion.

[Primary student] 10 million?

[Primary student] 999 trillion, 999 billion, 999 million…

[Primary student] …to the power of 999 trillion, 999 billion.

[Teacher] How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh? 10 tickles. [laughs}

[High school student] In music, you use it for being able to see how long you hold the note for.

[Group] Two, four, six.

[Primary student] Seven.

[Teacher] Eight's my lucky number.

[Primary student] 10 because it's my sister's age.

[Teacher] Twelve's a nice number. You can break that up.

[Primary student] 14.

[High school student] 95, it is the number of, "Lightning McQueen."

[Primary student] My favourite number's 26 because it is my birthday. And it is how many letters there are in the alphabet.

[Teacher] Z, Y, W, X, V, U?

[Primary student] We both want to be teachers when we grow up.

[Primary student] Because they have to teach kids about numbers, adding, subtraction, division.

[Primary student] I wanna be an author. You need good vocabulary to make your story more descriptive.

[Teacher] Why are geometry books so adorable? Because they have acute angles.

[Primary student] My favourite book is a book called "Wings of Fire."

[Primary student "Dogman."

[Primary student] Probably "The Fault in Our Stars."

[Primary student] My favourite book is "Ella's Diary."

[Teacher] Ah, "The Gruffalo."

[Primary student] My favourite book is "Pig the Pug" because it's so funny.

[High school student] I love the "Throne of Glass" series.

[Primary student] I think that literacy skills are important because it might actually teach you new words, how to improve your spelling.

[Teacher] Knock, knock.

[Interviewer] Who's there?

[Teacher] Spell.

[Interviewer] Spell who?

[Teacher] Okay, W-H-O.

[Primary student] I like to read just about anywhere, at school, at home, it doesn't matter. Reading's very important for my mental health.

[Teacher] I think literacy's everywhere around us. We need it to survive.

[Teacher] Numeracy, just like literacy, it's everywhere in life.

[Teacher] Something that is just an essential part of life.

[Teacher] We use it everywhere.

[High school student] We can use it in everyday life.

[High school student] You use it every day. Like, you need it in life, yeah.

• What is your favourite book?
• What is your favourite number?
• What is your favourite word?
• What is the longest word that you know?
• What is the longest number you know?
• If you were a teacher for a day what numeracy things would you teach?
• If the number 100 could speak what do you think it would tell us?
• What is the most interesting thing about numeracy that you can think of?
• What do you think literacy is?