Leadership Report 

The teaching of mathematics has come a long way since our own experiences in classrooms across the country and globe - and thank goodness for that! I'm sure many of you can remember the gut-wrenching fear and sweaty palms that came with having to stand at the front of the class and recite times tables as fast as you could - accurately of course. Our own experiences of learning mathematics stay with us into adulthood, and form the basis for many of our self proclaimed opinions as to whether we are 'good' at maths or not, and sometimes it can form the basis of whether as parents we believe our children will be 'good' or not at maths - as if it's a hereditary gene.

At Magill School we believe whole heartedly that every child should enjoy working with a mathematical mindset, and to that end as a staff we have engaged with professional learning over the past few years which supports how we want to teach mathematics and the dispositions we want students to bring to learning mathematics. In previous years our staff have engaged with Mathematical Mindsets to set the scene for learning maths. 

This year our teachers have been working to become Extraordinary Teachers of Math, using the work of Dan Finkel and his 5 Principles of Extraordinary Math Teaching with the support of Primary Maths Association facilitator Mike Chartres. If you have the time I encourage you to watch the video which has sparked our learning journey this year.

On Friday 3rd September staff engaged in a whole day of learning to continue our journey to becoming Extraordinary Teachers of Math focusing on the 5 Principles:

1. Start with a question
2. Allow time to struggle
3. You are not the answer
4. Say 'YES' to student ideas
5. PLAY!

By embedding these 5 principles into the teaching and learning cycles within mathematics we hope to connect with students and provide opportunities to explore their ideas and passions within mathematics. That the process of working as a mathematician, to question, pose possibilities and explore options are a rich and rewarding process to working through a challenge - and by not being solution focused to the extent of stripping back the enjoyment of mathematics we can provide rigorous and challenging learning which is, dare we say it, fun and engaging to participate in.

Kasey Thorne

Assistant Principal