Learning &
Teaching

Susanne Jackson
Deputy Principal- Learning & Teaching

Just the facts

Learning basic facts in Mathematics

At St Joseph’s we base all of our Mathematics learning and teaching in current research. This is highlighted throughout our policies, teacher's planning and practises in our classroom. One of the base skills in Mathematics is the automatic recall of facts. This includes simple addition and subtraction facts, as well as multiplication and division facts. These skills are explicitly taught and assessed each day in our classrooms. Building these basic skills allows students to build confidence in their mathematical skills and apply their knowledge in more complex problem solving situations.

Our Building Bricks of Fluency

To build students' basic skills we follow a developmental continuum of skills. This continuum was designed using current research and expert knowledge from MACS (Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools), Mathematics education leaders and St Joseph’s staff. These skills are displayed in all learning areas and students' progression is tracked throughout the learning process. For these skills to move into students’ long-term memory and become fluent, students are engaged in numerous games and ongoing repetition throughout the year. This is to avoid students giving the impression of mastery and then losing the knowledge when asked at a later date.

Multiplication Facts

One of the most common questions teachers in the Middle and Senior school hear, is about “Times Tables” or Multiplication facts. To support students to build their Multiplication fluency in a way that allows them to have a deep mathematical understanding, last year we bought each student a ‘Multiplication by Heart” box. This is a card system that supports students to build their multiplicative thinking at their own pace. It also has an online tool that helps to embed their learning. To learn more about these tools watch the clips below:

This online tool as well as other ideas about how to embed basic mathematical facts are on our home learning site for students to practise at home. For more home learning ideas, please click on the link below to visit your child’s Home Learning Page.