Through the Leadership Lens

At St Leonard's, we are continuing to strengthen students’ mathematical fluency through our Number Blast program. Number Blast supports students to build confidence, flexibility and efficiency with numbers through short, targeted fluency sessions and rich mathematical discussions.

Rather than focusing only on speed or memorising facts, Number Blast encourages students to develop strong number sense, use efficient mental strategies and explain their thinking. Across the school, every class aims to spend around 10 minutes each day building fluency through games, problem solving, number talks, strategy practice and mental computation activities. The focus is not just on getting the answer, but on how students think about numbers, choose efficient strategies and explain their reasoning.

To further support this work, members of our teaching team recently attended professional learning which focussed on number fluency, led by mathematics expert, Dr Ange Rogers. This was a valuable opportunity to deepen our understanding of current research and evidence-based practices, while also networking and learning alongside other educators to continue strengthening mathematics learning across our school community.

Below are some reflections from staff who attended the workshop, along with examples of practical fluency games, activities and ideas that families can use at home to continue supporting mathematical learning beyond the classroom.

Year 3/4

The greatest takeaway from this professional development session was learning about the Instructional Hierarchy. It helped me better understand where my students are in their mathematical development and learning.

One activity that is particularly effective during the fluency stage is the Count and Roll Place Value game. This game can be adapted for forward counting, backward counting, and skip counting, while also promoting students’ confidence and fluency with number patterns and counting skills.

Mel Sedony and Carmel Wood

Year 5/6 

In addition to highlights covered in the Year 3/4 professional learning as discussed above, the Year 5/6 learning day focussed on the areas of Fractions, Decimals, Percentages and the importance of Number Lines. The importance of correct language was highlighted throughout the day. For example, the way decimal numbers are read aloud - 5.73 is not 5 point 73, rather, 5 and 73 hundredths. 

One game we particularly enjoyed was ‘Pairzi’. The aim of the game is to match up pairs of cards that provide the same information e.g. with a Fractions/ Decimals/ Percentage focus, cards may have included 5/10, 0.1, 10%, 50%, 0.5 etc. Then you would take turns matching cards up. In this instance you might select 0.5 and 50%. This game can be adapted to many number concepts e.g. partitions of 10 (9 and 1, 8 and 2, 7 and 3 etc), addition, subtraction, multiplication or division facts. The opportunities are endless! 

Daniel Cotesta and Maddie DiCosmo

Enjoy some photos below of students from 5/6J participating in their Number Blast session.

Reminder - School Closure 

Please note that tomorrow, Friday, 5th June will be a school closure day.