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St Leo the Great Catholic Primary School. Learning from Leaders National Partnerships Schools’ Forum. Who are we?. Located in the Western suburbs of Melbourne Low socio-economic area 165 students Multicultural community Medium-High EAL (English as an Additional Language) enrolment.
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St Leo the Great Catholic Primary School Learning from Leaders National Partnerships Schools’ Forum
Who are we? • Located in the Western suburbs of Melbourne • Low socio-economic area • 165 students • Multicultural community • Medium-High EAL (English as an Additional Language) enrolment
National Partnerships: What did the reform mean for our school? When National Partnerships came along the school had already identified, through the school review process, numeracy as an area of school improvement. The focus being to build the pedagogical content knowledge of teachers through professional learning. Although we envisaged times of great frustration, we were open to the idea of more intensive support, in terms of coaching support in planning and classrooms and further professional learning opportunities.
Where did we start? We reflected on the plans we already had in place such as our School Improvement Plan, Maths Improvement Plan and Maths Annual Action Plan and from this we developed our National Partnerships Plan with particular focus on … • developing a shared understanding-Vision • reflecting on current practice in planning, professional learning team meetings and in the classroom • planning-with coaches and School Maths Leader (role changed) • developing a planning process and common planning document (work in progress)
Where did we start? Using our NAPLAN data It was important that we unpacked our NAPLAN data as a whole staff. We realised that NAPLAN could be formative and summative. We used the Item Analysis Report in particular to identify insights such as: • Space • Representations • Distractors and misconceptions • Mathematical language Data was used to drive our planning and teaching.
Where did we start?Number Intervention • One of our teachers is currently undertaking training in Number Intervention. • Huge commitment – planning & teaching time, PD days • Works with children in Years Prep – 4 who are identified as being below benchmarks on assessments (SINE, Westwood One Minute Tests) • Shares learning and strategies with classroom teachers. • Enables us to reach children at point of intervention
The Planning Process Planners were modified throughout our journey to reflect the process of planning
The Planning ProcessAreas of focus • Key ideas and understandings • Open ended investigations • Prior knowledge of students • Pre-assessment / data • Differentiating
Enable: What if we only had 12 blocks? Extend: Is there a different box that would hold 24 unifix? Let’s investigate… Understanding - An object or container can have the same volume but look different Key Idea - Volume The amount of space occupied by an object Your Challenge today is to … 1. Using the unifix on your table, make a structure with a volume of 24 2. Predict what you think the box would look like 3. Using cover paper, create a folded container that holds the volume of 24 unifix. 4. How can you check the volume?
We visualised the net of a rectangular prism to make our box. We can use multiplication and factors to help us find all the possibilities when making a new structure. We used the faces of the rectangular prism to measure the box. All our boxes looked different, but still had a volume of 24 unifix blocks
What have we noticed? • Improved engagement of children • Children cognitively aware of what effective maths learners do • Improved NAPLAN results • Teachers’ greater confidence in teaching mathematics • Common use of mathematical language (teachers and students) • Difference in the role of the teacher – questioning • Importance placed on children being able to articulate their mathematical thinking (justifying & reasoning)
Engaging the Community • Treasure chest • Family maths night • Family information night • Published work samples in communication book • School website and MyClasses
What is embedded practice? • Planning in teams with the School Maths Leader • Whole-school approach to planning • Pre-assessment process • Analysis of data • Maths walls / big books • Teaching strategies to … • encourage student engagement • generate discussion • allow entry points for all students • extend students learning • encourage children to formulate generalisations • articulate mathematical thinking & learning • provide opportunities for student reflection
How was this possible? Government funding and strategic decisions made by leadership allowed us to… • Implement a Number Intervention program • Release teachers for professional learning • Release teachers and School Maths Leader to meet with coaches regularly for planning, lesson studies and professional learning team meetings • Release maths leadership team for network meetings Willingness and enthusiasm of staff to embrace the National Partnerships initiative
Where to now? • Continue to build community engagement • Newsletter • Website and MyClasses • Parent workshops • Continue to focus professional learning on open-ended tasks and differentiating the curriculum (Student Comparison Report and SWIS reflection tool)
