RESIDENTS in West Howe have taken part in a Bake Off-themed course which improved their practical maths skills. 

The four-session course took place at The Henry Brown Community Centre in Cunningham Crescent and was delivered by Dorset Council as part of the government-funded Multiply scheme. 

Around 20 residents explored the cost of different cooking ingredients, whether ‘best buys’ really work out cheaper and the value of money saving websites and supermarket loyalty cards. 

The culmination was the West Howe Bake Off competition in which participants used their maths skills to produce their best recipes and competed for the honour of being named ‘Star Baker.’ 

Multiply tutor Kellie Bird said: “Our version of Bake Off was a great success because it enabled learners to see numbers in a new and much clearer, less daunting way, through the practice of preparing fresh and good value food. 

“When people are cooking and learning better ways to shop, it’s difficult to believe they are also improving their numeracy. 

“The learners were able to use ratio and proportion skills when scaling recipes up and down, metric, and imperial conversions when converting units of measure from old family recipes, percentages, and fractions when modifying their own recipes and looking at food labels. 

“This really was a fantastic opportunity for me as a tutor to go out into the community and share numeracy skills through baking with these willing learners.” 

Since September 2022 more than 1,500 people, employees and parents across BCP and Dorset have accessed free online, or in-person Multiply courses to boost their numeracy skills for everyday life and for work. 

West Howe Bake Off participant Yvonne Andrews said: “I was really impressed by the course because it was practical and explained maths in an easy to understand way. 

“’m now hoping to go on and study English with Skills & Learning and am signing up for a poetry and creative writing course.” 

Angie Hook agreed: “Like a lot of people I find it easy to rely on spell check and a calculator, but this course showed me how much I use maths in everyday life and how simply and clearly, I can learn it if I have a good tutor like Kellie.”