A small town in western New South Wales has earned the praise of a leading Monash University academic for its innovative maths teaching strategies.
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St John's Primary School in Trangie, home to just 48 students, is taking an exciting maths teaching program straight to the classroom with impressive results.
School principals and leading maths teachers in the Wilcannia-Forbes Diocese, including St Johns, attended training days earlier this year facilitated by Professor Ann Gervasoni from Monash University.
The principals and teachers are being trained in the successful Extending Mathematical Understanding Program (EMU) - developed and implemented by Professor Gervasoni.
The EMU Project is a research-based intervention program that focusses on the early years of schooling.
It involves intensive 30-minute daily sessions for groups of three children over a period of 10-20 weeks.
The EMU Program has been shown by detailed research to improve children's learning and confidence with mathematics.
"Maths is essential for all kids, but not all kids grasp the concepts of maths in the same way, or at the same pace. Professor Gervasoni has identified innovative ways to help all kids succeed mathematically. We are so excited to be part of her revolutionary teaching strategies," St John's Principal Brett Henderson said.
"Our teachers have been inspired by Professor Gervasoni. She encouraged us to take her strategies back to our classrooms, to open our minds and create exciting learning environments for our children, and to follow that up by assessing and monitoring their development. And that's exactly what our teachers at St John's have done."
In fact, Professor Gervasoni was so impressed by this little school, she has been sharing the St John's example to other schools.
"She opened a conference I attended recently by sharing our story - encouraging others to start a blog as we have done to share information and resources with parents," St John's teacher Xanthie Kerin said.
The blog, developed by graduate teacher Emma Wilson, informs parents and community members of the wonderful learning developments happening within the school.
Using this exciting new platform to reach parents and community, Emma and Xanthie are able to showcase their innovative maths strategies.
The blog can be viewed at: www.bit.ly/stjohnstrangie
The EMU program, adopted by St John's last term, equips teachers to; identify students who need help diagnose individual learning needs monitor and assess their mathematical learning plan and implement learning strategies, identify strategies for accelerating the learning of underperforming students in counting, place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; understand the role of children's confidence and attitude in learning mathematics understand the role of families and communities in enhancing mathematical learning.
"We don't have any results to share at this early stage, however, our kids are excited and enthusiastic bout maths, and that is the best result we could hope for," Mrs Kerin said.