Ryan’s Rambling
Dear Families,
After a warm couple of weeks, the Autumnal weather has graced us with its presence. It looks as though Winter will be making an appearance next week.
It was wonderful to see so many of you this week, despite only having the students on site for a couple of days. I loved hearing all the stories of camping trips, day trips, side quests, overseas holidays and precious family time spent.
On Tuesday, our staff spent the day with our esteemed consultant, Andrea Hillbrick. Our staff explored a plethora of different ways to enhance our teaching and learning of Numeracy. Our new instructional model was a topic of much discussion and reflection, as was the recently revised mathematics curriculum. Below is an excerpt from the aims of the Victorian Mathematics Curriculum:
Mathematics aims to ensure that students:
- develop useful mathematical and numeracy skills for everyday life and work, as active and critical citizens in a technological world
- become confident, proficient, effective and adaptive users of mathematics
- become effective communicators of mathematics who can investigate, represent and interpret situations in their personal and work lives, think critically, and make choices as active, engaged, numerate citizens
- develop proficiency with mathematical concepts, skills, procedures and processes, and use them to demonstrate mastery in mathematics as they pose and solve problems, and reason with number, algebra, measurement, space, statistics and probability
- make connections between areas of mathematics and apply mathematics to model situations in various fields and disciplines
- develop a positive disposition towards mathematics, recognising it as an accessible and useful discipline to study
- appreciate mathematics as a discipline – its history, ideas, problems and applications, aesthetics and philosophy
It’s worth reflecting on the above, as mathematics, or any learning for that matter, shouldn’t be restricted to ‘pen and paper’ outcomes. Themes of content, pedagogy, intent and proficiency were discussed, and the strong message that our school is on the right track with mathematics was endorsed by Andrea and our staff.
Tomorrow, our Student Leadership Executive will be representing Dana Street at the Arch ANZAC Ceremony, by laying a wreath on behalf of our school. Together, the students, Miss Kylie and I read about three sets of brothers, the Moore, Daly and Coltman brothers, all six of whom paid the ultimate sacrifice during World War One. The six, brave individuals will be honoured at this year’s ceremony at the Arch. Why are they so significant to us? They all attended Dana Street Primary School. Our Student Leaders reflected on how proud they felt to be representing our school. If you have time, the ceremony will be from 8:00am at the Arch of Victory in Sturt Street.
I hope that you all have a fantastic weekend.
Ryan 😊