Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope you all enjoyed the ‘long’ weekend doing the things you enjoy with your family and friends. We are now almost halfway through Term 4, with many exciting events still to occur throughout the remainder of this term.

To continue the festive season celebrations from the previous Principal’s Report, I would like to wish a “Happy Halloween” to our students, staff and families who celebrated this occasion.

As the leader of mathematics across Truganina P-9 College, I would like to share with you some celebrations in maths this year, our guaranteed and viable maths curriculum, as well as how you can support maths learning at home.

Family Maths Nights

Thank you very much to all families who participated in the following Family Maths Night events throughout this year:

Term 2: Foundation to Year 2 students
Term 3: Year 7 to 9 students
Term 4: Year 3 to 6 students

We are very grateful to have had a total of 190 families in attendance for these events which is an outstanding result!

The Family Maths Nights provided a great opportunity to create links between school and home, regarding some of the maths concepts students are learning about.

Students worked with their families to partake in engaging maths activities, which required them to critically think and apply prior maths knowledge/skills.

Many students were also the recipients of randomly drawn prizes as acknowledgement of their participation in these events.

We are currently in the process of planning future Family Maths Nights for 2026, so please keep an eye out for upcoming correspondence regarding details of these events.

Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum

Mathematics is a key component of our guaranteed and viable curriculum at Truganina P-9 College.

Teachers access the Victorian Curriculum, Essential Learnings documents and Skills/Knowledge documents to collaboratively forward plan engaging maths learning experiences. An emphasis this year has been placed on teachers planning and delivering explicit teaching in maths.

Explicit teaching in maths has supported with managing the cognitive load of students when being introduced to new maths concepts. Teachers have also analysed student data from a variety of maths assessments throughout the year to differentiate maths learning experiences for individual student learning needs.

Throughout maths units, students have engaged in authentic experiences aligned with real-world maths problems to solve.

Supporting Maths Learning at Home

At home, parents and guardians can support children to develop their maths skills by including maths in daily activities and fostering a positive, growth-mindset in the following ways:

Use online maths websites and educational applications, such as Mathletics, which makes maths learning both fun and interactive.
Whilst shopping, you may get children to add the total costs, calculate change, or compare unit prices to see which item is better value.
With household tasks, children may sort and count groceries, or ensure there is enough cutlery, plates and drink glasses setup on the dining table.
In the kitchen, children can help measure ingredients for recipes, which supports with measurement and fractions understanding.
Playing games, such as Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders or card games, that involve counting, number recognition, money and strategy.

David Yacoub

Year 2 and 3 Assistant Principal

Teaching & Learning Excellence: Mathematics

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