Mathematics

Learning mathematics creates opportunities for and enriches the lives of all Australians. The Australian Curriculum Mathematics provides students with essential mathematical skills and knowledge in number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability.

At NPS, teachers model and convey growth mindset messages to students and teach using practices that enable students to develop positive dispositions of themselves as mathematicians. Students understand that mistakes, struggle and challenge are critical for brain growth, and that Maths is visual and our brain wants to think visually about it. Our staff have trained in and apply the research from the Stanford University online course: How to Learn Maths for Teachers – Jo Boaler.

At NPS, we believe children should have a robust sense of number. This includes an understanding of place value, basic operations, computational facility and a knowledge of how to apply this to problem solving. We endeavour to build a student-centered environment in which children can become mathematically proficient by using practical ways to teach important concepts in a developmentally, student-centered fashion.

Understanding of the Big Ideas in Number (BIiN) underpins the teaching and learning of mathematics at NPS. The BIiN focus areas are:

• Foundation and Year 1: Trusting the Count
• Years 2 and 3: Place Value
• Years 4 and 5: Additive to Multiplicative Thinking
• Year 6: Partitioning

Mastery of these building blocks results in reduced cognitive load, allowing an increased ability to apply learning to real life scenarios and authentic problems.