Assistant Principal
Fluency in Mathematics
This term there has been an increased focus on fluency in mathematics at the beginning of lessons to develop the students' automaticity when recalling number facts, ranging from 'friends of ten' (eg: 7+3, 2+8), doubles and near doubles, adding/subtracting 10 and multiplication facts up to 10x10.
Mr Borges has been working with all teachers to support them to plan and implement tasks that provide students with strategies to learn, practise and recall facts as well as allowing scheduled time within mathematics lessons to apply and practise the facts they are focusing on. There has been a lot of enthusiasm shown by the students and there has been recognisable growth in the students automatic recall, which allows them to focus on the concepts being taught, not just on the computation of number facts.
Please discuss with your children what number facts they are focusing on during their fluency sessions and if time permits give them further opportunities to practise and develop confidence in recalling facts efficiently.
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the second day of an area based professional learning in mathematics. The theme of the day was Retrieval and Fluency in Maths. I attended with Mrs Uzunovski, Mr Borges, Ms Mary and Mrs Galea. It really complemented what we are focusing on at a school level and provided us with lots of new thinking for our forward planning. Mr Borges has already applied one of the fluency strategies we were shown in both 1/2C and 3/4 with great success.
Year 6-7 Transition
A reminder that the statewide orientation day for students attending a government secondary college is Tuesday 9th December, which is less than 3 weeks away. Students do not attend primary school on that day - they make their way straight to their 2026 school.
This day is designed to help students feel more comfortable with secondary school. Activities can include meeting new students and teachers, touring the school, and taking part in sample lessons.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Dean Squires
Assistant Principal