Leadership Communication

Mathematics Curriculum 

Mathematics continues to be an important area of focus in our school improvement work. Over the past year, teachers have been working closely together to strengthen the consistency and quality of Mathematics teaching across the school.

A key part of this work has been developing clearer curriculum planning, strengthening explicit teaching, and using assessment information to better understand what students know, where they need further support, and when they are ready to move on. Teachers are also continuing to strengthen the way they check for understanding during lessons so that teaching can respond more closely to student need.

This includes implementing Dr Ange Rogers’ Number Fluency Program (NFP) across Foundation to Year 6. The routine provides a systematic sequence of critical number skills involving subitising, part whole relationships, additive thinking, place value and multiplicative thinking. Students participate in short, daily practice at the beginning of Mathematics lessons to build accuracy, fluency and the flexible use of efficient strategies. New broder concepts and ideas are explicitly taught during the main Mathematics lesson, while the NFP provides repeated practice so students can use key skills with increasing ease.

We are seeing encouraging improvement in student learning and greater consistency in the way Mathematics is taught from Foundation through to Year 6. Students are being supported to build strong mathematical knowledge, explain their reasoning, make connections between ideas and apply their learning to increasingly complex problems.

Importantly, this work is not about one program or one particular approach. It is about continually strengthening teacher practice, using evidence of student learning, and ensuring that every child is appropriately supported and challenged.

Australian Mathematics Competition

On Tuesday 4 August, many students from Years 3 to 6 will participate in the Australian Mathematics Competition. The AMC is Australia’s longest running and most well known Mathematics competition, challenging students to apply their reasoning, logic and problem solving skills in unfamiliar situations.

Our Year 5 students completed the AMC last year, while Year 5 and Year 6 students participated in the Computational and Algorithmic Thinking Competition earlier this year. Expanding this opportunity across Years 3 to 6 is part of our wider work to strengthen Mathematics teaching and build a school culture in which challenge, persistence and mathematical curiosity are valued.

Students will complete 30 questions online over 60 minutes. The competition begins with accessible visual and number problems before progressing to more complex spatial, pattern and multi step challenges. The first 25 questions are multiple choice, while the final five require students to produce their own whole number answer. Students are not expected to solve every problem and there is no penalty for an incorrect response.

At this time, we still have a number of pending permissions. Families with an outstanding School Activity request are encouraged to respond as soon as possible, as students cannot participate without consent. Paper forms are available from the school if required.

Below are some sample questions from a previous Middle Year paper:

We are excited to see students take an risk, test their ideas and discover what they can do in Mathematics.

Enjoy your weekend,

Ben Dixon

Curriculum Leader - Mathematics