Mathematics

Mathematics

Wallarano Primary School is very proud of the Numeracy program delivered to students. We believe maths education is of vital importance and we place major emphasis on its implementation.

Children begin school having experience with a variety of mathematical situations. They have a natural drive to make sense of their world and explore relationships and impose order on things around them. The types of learning experiences provided at school can capture this eagerness to learn and build a firm foundation for the years to come.

Wallarano Primary School believes that students need the opportunity to be actively involved in the learning of Numeracy through the use of oral language, concrete materials and recording ideas in ways that make sense to them. The emphasis is on students creating their own understanding of Mathematics by experiencing a range of classroom situations that build and challenge existing concepts.

The strength of this program lies in its essential features:

• A daily one-hour numeracy block
• Highly trained and skilled staff
• Numeracy Learning Specialists
• Individual Learning Plans for those children requiring special assistance
• Specialised formative assessments to ensure individual student learning is at their point of need
• Extension Programs for students requiring advanced work
• Learning through games and play
• Use of hands on materials acroos all levels of learning

Maths Education in the Early Years: Prep – 2

Experiences at this level use real contexts, manipulative materials; play situations and the language of the child to build concepts and skills. It is of the utmost importance that children develop a firm understanding of whole number and then come to appreciate the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Number work is enhanced and linked to the real world through measurement. Spatial concepts developed in mathematics at this level assist the child to deal with practical needs for making, drawing, visualising and moving around.

Learning mathematics in the Early Years, Prep-2 should be interesting and useful. Children need everyday skills such as telling the time and calculating how long things take, reading simple maps and following spatial directions, measuring using common units, being able to work out simple costs and correct change. Teaching Mathematics will draw on these everyday situations and will, in turn, strengthen the child’s competence.

Maths Education - Grades 3-6

In these years students’ progress beyond the foundations and their numeracy becomes more developed. An expanded curriculum program provides the basis for deep and transfer learning, linking mathematics across curriculum areas. A continued focus on the Mathematical Proficiencies include;

• developing the students number fluency so they can recall factual information,
• problem solving for investigating and posing problems in different contexts and
• reasoning skills to develop students capacity for logical thinking that assists students to make conjectures, analyse, explain, compare and contrast concepts.

Digitial Technologies in Mathematics

At Wallarano students use a range of digital technologies to support and enhance their learning. iPads are in every classroom with a variety of apps for student engagement. Digital devices such as BeeBots and Spheros are used within Mathematics to link across curriculum areas making learning relevant to real life.