Learning from Leaders National Partnerships Schools’ Forum

Who are we?

Located in the Western suburbs of Melbourne

Low socio-economic area165 studentsMulticultural communityMedium-High EAL (English as an

Additional Language) enrolment

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.

National Partnerships: What did the reform mean for our school?

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-Visionreflecting on current practice in planning, professional learning team meetings and in the classroomplanning-with coaches and School Maths Leader (role changed)developing a planning process and common planning document (work in progress)

Where did we start?

It was important that we unpacked ourNAPLAN data as a whole staff. We realised that NAPLAN could beformative and summative. We used the Item Analysis Report inparticular to identify insights such as:

Space RepresentationsDistractors and misconceptionsMathematical language

Data was used to drive our planning andteaching.

Using our NAPLAN data

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

Planners were modified throughout our journey to reflect the process of planning

The Planning Process

The Planning ProcessAreas of focus

Key ideas and understandingsOpen ended investigationsPrior knowledge of students

Pre-assessment / dataDifferentiating

Let’s investigate…

Understanding - An object or container can have the same volume but look

different

Your Challenge today is to …1. Using the unifix on your table, make a structure with a volume of 242. Predict what you think the box would look like3. Using cover paper, create a folded container that holds the volume of 24 unifix. 4. How can you check the volume?

Key Idea - VolumeThe amount of space occupied by an object

Enable: What if we only had 12 blocks? Extend:

Is there a different box that would hold 24 unifix?

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 childrenChildren cognitively aware of what effective maths learners doImproved NAPLAN resultsTeachers’ greater confidence in teaching mathematicsCommon 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 chestFamily maths nightFamily information nightPublished work samples in communication

book School website and MyClasses

Planning in teams with the School Maths LeaderWhole-school approach to planningPre-assessment processAnalysis of dataMaths walls / big booksTeaching strategies to …

encourage student engagement generate discussionallow entry points for all studentsextend students learningencourage children to formulate generalisations articulate mathematical thinking & learning provide opportunities for student reflection

What is embedded practice?

How was this possible?Government funding and strategic decisions made by leadership allowed us to…

Implement a Number Intervention programRelease teachers for professional learningRelease 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

Continue to build community engagement NewsletterWebsite and MyClassesParent workshops

Continue to focus professional learning on open-ended tasks and differentiating the curriculum (Student Comparison Report and SWIS reflection tool)

Where to now?

Thank you for your participation

Representations of questions on NAPLAN

Item Analysis Report – Summary of Findings

Student Comparison ReportSummary of findings