This term my syndicate is doing a focus on maths for Inquiry, with particular focus on “How can we increase students view & perception of mathematics to help them become more positive, engaged and motivated so that their learning in mathematics accelerates?”. We have identified a number of children who are unmotivated and lack a positive view of mathematics (maths is hard). These children, we have also identified as having low achievement in mathematics (see beginning of 2019 achievement data).   We will have 8 year 5/6 and 8 year 7/8 children in a withdraw target group to accelerate their mathematics.  These children will be withdrawn from week 2 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for 20-30 minutes extra mathematics. I will be takig the year 5/6 group and Natasha Jenkins will be taking the year 7/8 group.

Classroom observation on me, done by my team leader Natasha. The focus was on my behaviour management during maths.

I have been working alongside Shane at school to look into Maths best practises in our school and ways we can improve this. This has involved surveying the teachers in our school and also the teachers in our COL to find out what they are doing in maths and whether it is effective, doing some professional readings, and finding out what the needs and goals are for teachers in our school and COL for maths. The focus is on finding ways to effectively teach children maths in our school and increase the levels of achievement. See below for more details.

Today I received this email from a parent in my class (see attached email). It is good to see I am helping this child and building a strong relationship. This reassures me that what I am doing is important and is working and helping with the wellbeing of the children and families in my class.

In our class, we noticed that the children needed a visual aid to help with the school-wide behaviour management card system. Throughout the junior and middle school, they use an apple system, green apple = great, orange apple = warning for negative behaviour and red apple = red card which means detention and a phone call home. The children are to move the worms on to the different apples as they go through the school warning system. We found that this system was a bit “baby-ish” for our senior students so I have created an alternative that is more focused on the senior schools’ desirable behaviours. Often we discuss the concept of “living above the line” which comes from Habits for Wellbeing by Jane Taylor and discussion with our Principal Mark Ellis. On her  website ,  Jane shares a powerful quote that says “Ninety-nine per cent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses.” – George Washington Carver. We had a discussion with the children about what i...

This term as a class we created an ICT agreement to keep ourselves safe online and to use the computers in a safe and sensible way.

At the beginning of the year the students were given their testing from the first couple of weeks and from this they were able to come up with what they believe they need to work on. We used this information so that the children could self-set some goals they think they need to work on. The teachers then went through and added in anything else they thought the children were working on. The teachers can now use this information to direct their learning towards achieving these goals and the students are aware of what they need to work towards. This was also shared with their parents at the goal setting interviews in week 5. Example of the set up in doc attached.

I have been working on an individualised plan for two children in my class that struggle to fit into the mainstream classroom flow. This program includes some hands-on learning activities, research and reading that the students can do in their own time at their own pace without having to try and keep up with the rest of the class.