AN AWARD-WINNING director and drama trainer has started the countdown for a free class offering to multiply participants’ numeracy skills.

Clare Cairns, 39 – founder of Acting Out Drama School, based in Edinburgh – already has 10 people of a maximum 16, aged 19+ signed up for the Peebles beginners’ drama course for adults.

The scheme is run under the UK Government-funded Multiply Adult Learning programme.

The courses aim to develop everyday maths skills to manage for example money, cooking and gardening.

The two-and-a-half hour introduction to drama, with an emphasis on figures, runs for six weeks from 7pm to 9.30pm, starting on Monday, February 5 at Breathe Yoga and Wellness Studios in Old Halyrude School.

The class is one of many arts and crafts courses, coordinated by Scottish Borders Council, as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, to help transform the lives of adults by improving their numeracy skills.

Clare, with a degree in psychology, has taught acting all over the world for more than two decades.

She said: “We have created a beginners drama course for adults, which, at the same time as building acting skills, also looks at confidence round numbers, because a lot of everyday people struggle with maths in everyday life and talking about it.

“Drama is a great way to support anything because you can cover many different themes and issues in role play activities.

“In acting there are a lot of games designed to keep you ‘on your toes’, particularly in improvisation where you have to think on your feet on the spot.

“Although it is in front of other people it is done in a really fun way and you don’t have time to get nervous.”

During the course there will be opportunities for open discussion, feedback, and collaborative learning to explore drama, creativity, performance, and numeracy with enthusiasm.

Clare added: “When warming up, one game, rubber chicken, involves counting while thinking about something else and not getting overwhelmed with negativity about numbers.

“There’s lots of role play in acting so that students get to step into characters which can relate to maths for example someone who is very good at it and someone who is not so great with figures.”

Clare, who lives in Peebles, learned most of her own acting training on the job touring with theatre companies and working with world class mentors.

She is also a professional singer/songwriter and has directed about 500 performances.

Recently Clare also became a best selling author for her book: “Public Speaking without Fear”.

She also says she would love to create a youth drama project at Eastgate Theatre and bring more to Peebles.

The Scottish Borders Multiply Team is offering a further range of free adult numeracy programmes including: outdoor woodland skills, food growing, baking, arts and crafts, stone carving, web design and guitar tuition.

Another part of the Borders Multiply scheme is a National 4 mathematics course at Borders College.

It is suitable for adult learners (19+) looking to develop their skills for further learning and/or how to upskill and progress at work.

Students will acquire and apply the operational skills necessary to develop mathematical ideas through symbols and diagrams as well as reasoning skills and experience in making informed decisions.

These skills are valuable for whatever further study, training, or employment.

The course will run from February 1 to September 19 (approximately 33 weeks with breaks for term-time holidays) on Thursday evenings from 6pm to 9pm.