Numeracy

At Launching Place Primary School, we love learning about Maths in different ways. In the classroom, we have a maths lesson each day for about 60 minutes and during that time we cover the three areas of the curriculum which are Number & Algebra, Measurement & Geometry and Statistics & Probability. We cover these areas through a variety of different ways such as using hands-on learning activities with concrete materials, open ended tasks, playing games and linking the learning through real life experiences. This allows for differentiation in the classroom which means students are able to approach each task at their own level.

At Launching Place Primary School, we follow our instructional model. This includes:

• Warm up: Play maths-based games, take part in Number Talks, and explore patterns and open ended problems to activate and stimulate students’ maths brain so they are ready for learning.
• Explicit teaching: Teacher models maths concepts and skills from the Victorian Curriculum.
• Work time: Students have guided practise at the skills taught during the mini lesson to consolidate their learning, while the teacher works with student focus groups at their point of need.
• Check in: Check, share and reset to make sure all students are on the right track, that the learning is happening and to share any ‘lightbulb’ moments.
• Work time continues: Students continue their work and teachers continue to scaffold and assist students who need help and to assess where students are at in their learning.
• Reflection: Students spend time thinking about their learning and the processes that they used throughout the lesson. They make connections to other maths concepts and set goals for future learning.

Within our maths lessons we regularly connect with learning partners and follow agreed positive maths norms to ensure a productive learning environment.                    

We also use a program called Essential Assessment which is a way for teachers to track students learning. We complete a pre-test at the start of the year, a mid-year test in the middle of the year and a post-test at the end of the year to look at students’ growth over the year in the 3 main areas. We also specifically use Essential Assessment for certain maths topics e.g. addition, time, place value, as we teach those concepts. The program sets individual learning goals for each student so then they are working at their point of need and we can use that to guide our teaching throughout the year.

For more information, please watch our numeracy instructional video below.