Maths and Statistics at Stanley Bay School

At Stanley Bay School we believe that “Those that do their best do well”.  In our Mathematics teaching and learning programmes we have fidelity to this belief.  It is visible through the following:
Integrity
  • Formative assessment is where teachers observe students tackling a Maths skill. Summative tests are formal tests widely used throughout New Zealand. 
  • At Stanley Bay we use both summative and formative assessments to evaluate students Maths ability. The results are used to identify students’ mathematical knowledge and strategy needs. 
  • Teachers/kaiako use the data to develop their maths programme that is authentic and relevant to each students' lives.
  • Small workshops are created to meet specific learning needs and challenge and extend learners/ākonga; thus ensuring that we have ambitious mathematics teaching based on an acceleration approach.
  • Ākonga are engaged in follow-up exercises to reinforce newly acquired knowledge and implement mathematical strategies.
  • We believe that mathematics is a subject rich in beauty and creativity; we encourage our ākonga to develop positive mathematical identities and become pattern-seeking mathematicians with confidence and skills they can apply in various ways and across the curriculum.
Resilience
  • We use the learning pit as a visual tool to develop students' ability to embrace “terrific mistakes” in mathematics. We strive to build ākonga’s mathematical stamina and risk-taking when working together.
  • Collaborative problem-solving is an important part of our learning cycle; students are encouraged to work in heterogeneous groups to learn from one another and build further persistence and resilience in their mathematical thinking.
  • We also are mindful of various societal biases such as “boys are better than girls in maths” and reflect on our practice to endeavour to counter the bias.

Respect
  • Students work collaboratively using Thinkboards to show their thinking in a multidimensional way and provide mathematical proof.  
  • Healthy debate and disagreement in our maths sessions is encouraged,  we strive to make sense together, learning from one another.
  • Talk moves are used by kaiako as a pedagogical tool to encourage mathematical dialogue and debate in the classroom.
  • Maths is also about learning a language. Kaiako focus on explicitly developing students’ vocabulary to include rich mathematical language

LINK to the draft curriculum