Maths News
Maths at Wantirna College
Along with the rest of the College, we have enjoyed a great start to the year in our Mathematics classes. We have welcomed some new teachers and ES staff to our learning area and the team has hit the ground running.
Welcome to Mr Jake Leopold, Ms Ting Pan, Ms Marissa Thomas, Ms Isabel Yu and Mr Paul McGlynn, as well as our new QuickSmart Numeracy tutor, Mrs Anna Balasopoulos.
We also have a new Year 9/10 elective up and running, ‘The Wide World of Mathematics’, which seeks to complement the work being done by students in their mainstream Maths classes, and also extend students in their understanding of how algebra can be applied to other areas of mathematics.
All students should be coming to class fully prepared to learn. This includes bringing:
- A notebook, and a log / notes book
- A calculator
- Pens and pencils
- A charged laptop
Keeping a separate logbook is an important habit to build in younger year levels so that by the time students reach their senior years, they are used to maintaining a set of notes that can be used in exams and other formal assessment tasks.
Mathspace
Students in Years 7 to 10 will also be making regular use of Mathspace at the moment. Mathspace is an online platform that teachers use to help assess student learning. Mathspace does have a paywall that will be enacted in early March. To help support your child’s ongoing learning in Mathematics, and our teachers capacity to assess their levels of understanding, we will ask all parents to pay for Mathspace once this paywall comes in. More information regarding this will be sent out in early March.
Maths Boost
This year, we will once again be offering Maths Boost, our popular after school maths assistance program. Maths Boost is an informal opportunity for students to come along after school, once per week, to receive help with any questions that they have, or to catch up on their classwork or homework.
This year, Maths Boost will run on a Thursday afternoon, between 3:15pm and 4:15pm. You do not need to sign up – just simply come along to Rees House on a Thursday and there will be plenty of Maths teachers in attendance ready to help you!
NAPLAN
We also have NAPLAN testing for Year 7 and 9 students coming up later in this term. Elsewhere in the newsletter, you will find some information from our Assistant Principal, James Doble, about the opportunities to prepare for NAPLAN that we will be providing our students.
If you have any questions about your child’s Mathematics program, please do not hesitate to contact your teacher, or myself at the College, at oud@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au.
7S Loopy Planes
This week, 7S designed a loopy plane using a plastic straw and two strips of paper. They then threw the planes, measured their trajectory and analysed the data by finding the mean, median, mode and range as well as any outliers.
It was a fun and rewarding STEM style learning activity!
Mark Oudshoorn
Leader of Mathematics &
Whole School Numeracy