Learning from Leaders
National Partnerships Schools’ Forum
Who are we?
 Located in the Western suburbs of
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Melbourne
Low socio-economic area
165 students
Multicultural community
Medium-High EAL (English as an
Additional Language) enrolment
National Partnerships: What did the reform
mean for our school?
When National Partnerships came along the school had already
identified, through the school review process, numeracy as an area
of school improvement. The focus being to build the pedagogical
content knowledge of teachers through professional learning.
Although we envisaged times of great frustration, we were
open to the idea of more intensive support, in terms of coaching
support in planning and classrooms and further professional
learning opportunities.
Where did we start?
We reflected on the plans we already had in place such as our
School Improvement Plan, Maths Improvement Plan and Maths
Annual Action Plan and from this we developed our National
Partnerships Plan with particular focus on …
developing a shared understanding-Vision
reflecting on current practice in planning, professional learning
team meetings and in the classroom
planning-with coaches and School
Maths Leader (role changed)
developing a planning process and
common planning document
(work in progress)
Where did we start?
Using our NAPLAN data
It was important that we unpacked our
NAPLAN data as a whole staff.
We realised that NAPLAN could be
formative and summative.
We used the Item Analysis Report in
particular to identify insights such as:
 Space
 Representations
 Distractors and misconceptions
 Mathematical language
Data was used to drive our planning and
teaching.
Where did we start?
Number Intervention
 One of our teachers is currently undertaking training
in Number Intervention.
 Huge commitment – planning & teaching time, PD
days
 Works with children in Years Prep – 4 who are
identified as being below benchmarks on
assessments (SINE, Westwood One Minute Tests)
 Shares learning and strategies with classroom
teachers.
 Enables us to reach children at point of intervention
The Planning Process
Planners were modified throughout our journey to reflect the
process of planning
The Planning Process
Areas of focus
Key ideas and understandings
Open ended investigations
Prior knowledge of students
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Pre-assessment / data
Differentiating
Let’s investigate…
Enable:
Extend:
Understanding - An object
What if we
Is thereora container
volumebox
but look
only had 12can have the samedifferent
different
blocks?
that would
hold 24
Key Idea - Volume
unifix?
The amount of space occupied by an
object
Your Challenge today is to …
1. Using the unifix on your table, make a structure with a volume of 24
2. Predict what you think the box would look like
3. Using cover paper, create a folded container that holds the volume
of 24 unifix.
4. How can you check the volume?
We visualised the net of a rectangular prism to make our box.
We can use multiplication and factors to help us find all the possibilities
when making a new structure.
We used the faces of the rectangular prism to measure the box.
All our boxes looked different, but still had a volume of 24 unifix blocks
What have we noticed?
 Improved engagement of children
 Children cognitively aware of what
effective maths learners do
 Improved NAPLAN results
 Teachers’ greater confidence in teaching mathematics
 Common use of mathematical language (teachers and
students)
 Difference in the role of the teacher – questioning
 Importance placed on children being able to articulate
their mathematical thinking (justifying & reasoning)
Engaging the Community
 Treasure chest
 Family maths night
 Family information night
 Published work samples in communication
book
 School website and MyClasses
What is embedded practice?
 Planning in teams with the School Maths Leader
 Whole-school approach to planning
 Pre-assessment process
 Analysis of data
 Maths walls / big books
 Teaching strategies to …
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encourage student engagement
generate discussion
allow entry points for all students
extend students learning
encourage children to formulate generalisations
articulate mathematical thinking & learning
provide opportunities for student reflection
How was this possible?
Government funding and strategic decisions made
by leadership allowed us to…
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Implement a Number Intervention program
Release teachers for professional learning
Release teachers and School Maths Leader to meet
with coaches regularly for planning, lesson studies
and professional learning team meetings
Release maths leadership team for network
meetings
Willingness and enthusiasm of staff to embrace the
National Partnerships initiative
Where to now?
 Continue to build community engagement
Newsletter
 Website and MyClasses
 Parent workshops
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 Continue to focus professional learning on open-
ended tasks and differentiating the curriculum
(Student Comparison Report and SWIS reflection
tool)
Thank you for your participation
Representations of questions on NAPLAN
Item Analysis Report – Summary of Findings
Student Comparison Report
Summary of findings