St Mary’s school is a unique school set in the picturesque Nambucca Valley with a predominantly indigenous enrolment. The school has developed into a wonderful educational environment where students enjoy a sense of peace and trust. The principal and staff are supported by the local Gumbaynggirr community that has a long and proud history of engagement with the school which was opened over 108 years ago. At present, our student population is 36 and we have a two class structure comprising K-2 and Yrs 3-6.
We aim to share with participants of our workshop the unique context of our school and how the use of collaborative teaching practices, school embedded professional learning and the development of teacher capacity in planning rich mathematical tasks has considerably improved the learning outcomes of all our students.
Our journey of school improvement around mathematics began in 2014 with the mandatory implementation of the new NSW Mathematics K-10 Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum which necessitated a change in our pedagogical approach and the need to teach our students for conceptual understanding. The Diocese of Lismore has supported schools in their efforts to enhance student learning outcomes in Mathematics through a range of initiatives including access to high quality professional learning with Anita Chin. This led to the development of our Whole School Shared Beliefs, Understandings and Agreed Practices Statement in Mathematics and the restructuring of our Scope and Sequence to reflect conceptual understanding by making links to mathematical concepts and a priority on differentiation.
Our workshop will demonstrate the process we undertook of improving student outcomes by providing you with an overview of our learning journey with Anita Chin and sharing our experience in:
We aim to share with participants of our workshop the unique context of our school and how the use of collaborative teaching practices, school embedded professional learning and the development of teacher capacity in planning rich mathematical tasks has considerably improved the learning outcomes of all our students.
Our journey of school improvement around mathematics began in 2014 with the mandatory implementation of the new NSW Mathematics K-10 Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum which necessitated a change in our pedagogical approach and the need to teach our students for conceptual understanding. The Diocese of Lismore has supported schools in their efforts to enhance student learning outcomes in Mathematics through a range of initiatives including access to high quality professional learning with Anita Chin. This led to the development of our Whole School Shared Beliefs, Understandings and Agreed Practices Statement in Mathematics and the restructuring of our Scope and Sequence to reflect conceptual understanding by making links to mathematical concepts and a priority on differentiation.
Our workshop will demonstrate the process we undertook of improving student outcomes by providing you with an overview of our learning journey with Anita Chin and sharing our experience in:
- Implementing and developing a Whole School Mathematics Scope and Sequence
- Developing a Whole School Shared Beliefs, Understandings and Agreed Practices Statement in Mathematics
- Participating in Anita’s two online courses: Whole School Approach K-6: Differentiating Number and Algebra, Whole School Approach K-6: Differentiating Place Value
- Observing Anita in tailored on-site demonstration lessons and working with staff in order to develop teacher’s ability to differentiate both the concept being taught as well as the concrete materials being used
- Changing the structure of our daily mathematics lessons from 60 minutes to 75 minutes to reflect a higher level of mathematical instruction rather than just rote fact recall.
Session: A5
Time: 10:45 am - 11:45 am
Time: 10:45 am - 11:45 am