Claymore Public School

Background

Claymore Public School supports one of the lowest socio-economic status communities in Sydney. The school is funded through the Priority Schools Programs (PSP). Approximately 400 students attend the school. Also on site are a preschool and six special education classes. Over 50 per cent of the school population is from a language background other than English (LBOTE), with slightly more than 30 per cent of this group of Samoan background.

In the past, the school has focussed on improving student literacy. After an analysis of the BST numeracy data a focus on numeracy was seen as long overdue.

Several members of the teaching staff attended the South Western Sydney region’s PSP Numeracy Action Groups (NAGs) forum. The forum’s agenda included:

• the meaning of the term numeracy
• discussion on the critical importance of numeracy for students in schools serving low SES school communities
• using student performance data to inform whole school planning for numeracy
• whole school planning for numeracy improvement.

Following the forum, Claymore Public School conducted an action learning project focusing on the implementation of a numeracy audit. The purpose of conducting the numeracy audit was to determine areas for improvement of students’ numeracy skills.

What is a numeracy audit?

The Numeracy Audit (Hogan 2003) is a process through which schools can collect information about numeracy across the whole school community in order to plan improvement strategies. It involves students, teachers and parents. The focus for this process is numeracy across the curriculum.

The Numeracy Audit has the following goals for the benefit of the school community:

• teachers’ become better informed about numeracy demands across the curriculum
• teachers develop skills in recognising numeracy demands in their classroom and across the key learning areas; and therefore, students’ performance in relation to numeracy
• the school is able to make informed judgements about the extent to which numeracy requires action and where that action should be directed
• students have greater opportunities to develop numeracy, as teachers extend their knowledge of numeracy teaching strategies.

Go to http://www.redgumconsulting.com.au/num_audit.html for further information on the Numeracy Audit.

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Who was involved?

The school’s numeracy committee was established to implement the numeracy audit. The committee included the Deputy Principal, five classroom teachers, including two teachers in their first year of teaching, a parent and the Community Liaison Officer (CLO).

As part of the audit process, all students in all K-6 classes were surveyed. The parents of the Student Representative Council (SRC) members were contacted and twenty parents were interviewed. Thirteen teachers, both experienced and new scheme teachers, across all stage groups were surveyed and interviewed.

Findings

The school committee developed a numeracy audit plan which took place over a number of terms during the school year. It was important that sufficient time was allocated to include teachers, parents and students.

Data was collected from surveys and interviews with students, parents and teaching staff.

The students viewed mathematics as difficult and not as important as literacy. Mathematics was seen as disconnected from the real world. Numeracy skills, such as spending money at the shops, were seen as more important than mathematics.

Parents were asked to agree or disagree on the following statements:

The school has kept me well informed about the teaching of mathematics.

I am provided with useful reports about my child’s progress in mathematics.

I am satisfied with the frequency of reporting in mathematics.

Mathematics is an important subject for my child.

My child has developed new skills in mathematics during the year.

My child enjoys mathematics.

My child is developing his/her ability to work mathematically.

I understand how mathematics is taught at school.

I am confident to assist my child with mathematics at home.

The school has plenty of equipment to teach mathematics.

Using a mathematics textbook benefits my child.

The parents expressed similar views to the students. While they valued numeracy they considered literacy more important. These views surprised the teachers whose focus was on mathematical skills rather than numeracy.

Comments from parents included:

I have no idea how mathematics is taught.

Would like to learn more about mathematics.

Would like to know more about maths and how it is taught.

My child would like to learn more about problem solving and decimals.

Parents were also asked to suggest areas that they would like to learn about in regard to how mathematics is taught.  

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The next step

Based on the information collected from the numeracy audit the following questions were discussed by the teachers:

1. What everyday mathematics activities do you use to develop numeracy?

Teachers identified Count me in too activities and game related activities.

2. How should Claymore Public School develop numeracy comprehension skills in a whole school focus?

Teachers identified reciprocal numeracy, the use of a common mathematics language and focused questioning during lessons.

3. How should we assess comprehension in mathematics?

Teachers suggested whole stage assessment tasks.

Three actions were identified for immediate implementation:

• develop a new scope and sequence for numeracy K-6
• produce hands on numeracy based resources
• conduct numeracy workshops for parents.

Identified areas for future directions in numeracy development are to strengthen:

• the working mathematically strand in classroom teaching
• the focus on all dimensions of the NSW Quality Teaching model, Intellectual Quality, Quality Learning Environment and Significance
• connections with partner high schools to improve students’ numeracy skills.

Resources used

The regional PSP consultancy helped the teachers to initiate the project and they were available as needed throughout the project to support professional learning. The PSP consultancy also attended the presentation of the numeracy audit results.

The school’s PSP funding was used to release teachers for interviews. Funding was also provided for teacher relief to support the implementation of the identified areas of action.

Key messages and implications for Priority Schools

The numeracy audit has been a very effective strategy for the school. It has enabled the school to collect information and plan for numeracy improvement without making any assumptions about the numeracy perceptions of students, teachers or parents. The process increased ownership of the numeracy project by the whole school community.

The project coordinator acknowledged that it would have been easier to focus their NAGs project on other areas such as comprehension or the Newman’s Error Analysis. However, this would not have produced the breadth of the information, the potential for numeracy improvement or the commitment of the teachers that this approach has achieved.

Time is an issue to consider when implementing a numeracy audit and it is useful to set some limits and stay on task, as there is the potential to become sidetracked. The use of a Community Liaison Officer to engage and support parents in the audit process was seen as valuable. The use of one-on-one interviews, as well as surveys, worked well as it enabled recipients to be more open and expansive in their comments.

Further information

Simon Webb

Teacher

Claymore Public School

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