Teaching and Learning
By Trudy Gau
Building Strong Foundations in Number Fluency
Over the past few weeks, our students have begun their journey with our whole-school Number Fluency Program, and the early signs have been incredibly positive.
To ensure every student is learning at their right level, all students have completed a Number Fluency Screener. This allows us to identify each child’s point of need and begin their learning at the level that will best support their growth.
Importantly, before diving fully into the mathematics, students have spent the last two weeks developing the key routines and skills that make the program effective. Some of these include learning how to:
- generate appropriate numbers
- use a calculator efficiently
- check their work for accuracy
By explicitly teaching these routines, we reduce unnecessary cognitive load, allowing students to focus their thinking on the mathematics itself rather than trying to remember what to do next.
It has been fantastic to see the enthusiasm and engagement from our students. From Level 1 through to Level 6, students have quickly adopted the routines and are demonstrating a strong sense of ownership over their learning.
We look forward to continuing this important work and sharing our students’ progress with you throughout the year.
L5 Writing
Each week, I have the privilege of working with our teachers as they plan their lessons for their students. The L5s have been teaching the skills of how writers intentionally choose to use inclusive and exclusive pronouns and perspective to engage the reader and impact how the reader interacts with the text. They have used the books - Rabbits and Arthur's War to explore these skills.
This week, I had a number of students from 5C come and visit me to share their patterned writing. I was so impressed. Take a look:
