A strong understanding of Mathematics provides a range of capabilities we use in our personal, work and civic lives every day, as well as building the ability to solve complex problems, apply skills and make connections. At Sunbury Primary School, we strive to provide our students with not only the mathematical skills they require, but also the numeracy skills through which they can apply those mathematical skills to become problem solvers, provide reasoning for their solutions and make real world connections.

Our approach to teaching Numeracy is informed by the 4 mathematical proficiencies: Understanding, Fluency, Problem-Solving and Reasoning. These proficiencies are tied into the updated Victorian Mathematics Curriculum, which promotes a well-rounded approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics, as reflected in our classrooms. Students’ needs across Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space, Statistics and Probability are all tracked using formative assessment to inform our teaching staff and target teaching accordingly.  The teaching strategies, sequences of learning and assessment tasks used in our numeracy program are based upon the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0, which is underpinned by research about how students learn best with time given to Attention, Focus and Regulation, Knowledge and Memory, Retention and Recall and Mastery and Application.

Our priority is to meet the needs of each student in the numeracy classroom, extending and enabling prompts for students, based on a whole class focus. These serve to challenge students who are excelling or to support students who require additional exposure or resources. Each classroom is well stocked with carefully selected resources that support mathematics learning across all year levels and are consistently used to reinforce new concepts. Our staff continue to refine their numeracy teaching practices and engage in regular professional development around the best ways in which to support the learning of our students and prepare them to apply their numeracy skills and knowledge in meaningful ways each day.