At Our Lady of Nativity Primary School we believe we teach Mathematics to equip our students with skills, strategies and knowledge to actively participate and successfully function in society.
We encourage and value children’s reasoning, strategies, and thinking. We believe in nurturing every child’s confidence in mathematics and teaching each child at their point of need. We have support groups set up for various students throughout the year and all classroom teachers are involved in regular professional development.
We believe students learn from each other and so we offer opportunities to work collaboratively with others and discuss their thinking with the use of mathematical language. We integrate concrete materials, cooperative tasks, digital technologies and real life contextual problems into our Mathematic lessons. We feel this important so that students understand why they are learning what they are.
As a school we are involved in competitions organised by the Australasian Problem Solving Mathematical Olympiads. The Maths Explorer caters for Year 3 and 4 students; The Maths Olympiad targets Year 5 and 6 students. These groups run through Term 2 and Term 3 and they take part in four tests. These competitions encourage deep thinking, perseverance and help to build resilience towards problem solving.