Numeracy is an essential skill that is needed to progress through school and life.
Numerate people engage with the world, applying mathematics to real-life settings and contexts.
It's essential that the numeracy capability of every Queensland student in all stages of
schooling is developed, to ensure they have the skills needed to engage with both their learning
and the world around them.
Research tells us that maintaining a focus on numeracy teaching from Prep to Year 12 improves
student academic achievement, preparing them to become lifelong
learners and successful global citizens.
To support to explicit teaching and monitoring of numeracy within the curriculum, State Schools
Division is thrilled to announce the release of the Numeracy P–12 Hub and associated resources.
The Numeracy P–12 Hub contains an extensive suite of resources that have been designed to support
the teaching and monitoring of numeracy within the curriculum.
On the Hub, teachers, school leaders and regional curriculum officers can access key resources such
as; the Moving numeracy forward P–12 paper, the draft P–10 Numeracy continuum and the supporting
Numeracy Teaching Ideas.
These materials have been designed to build understanding of numeracy within the curriculum,
and enhance targeted teaching of numeracy, as well as its ongoing monitoring across the curriculum.
From the Numeracy P–12 Hub home page, you will find the Moving numeracy forward P–12 paper.
Moving numeracy forward P–12 outlines the six core messages that underpin the departments’ messages
about numeracy improvement.
The core messages are drawn from Australian and international research on leading significant
numeracy improvement in schools.
These messages are:
Focus on numeracy within the curriculum. Teach the numeracy demands of the curriculum. Understand
quality numeracy teaching. Monitor students’ numeracy progress and target teaching. Provide
regular and purposeful feedback. And build a whole-school approach to improving numeracy.
You can use this evidence-informed paper for focused reflection on each of the core messages
within your school context.
The refinement of school priorities around improving numeracy could be achieved by
identifying the core messages that the school; does well, is working
towards, and may need to address.
Core message 4 highlights the importance of monitoring students’ numeracy
progress and targeting teaching.
‘Monitoring students’ numeracy progress involves facilitating assessment for learning as
an integral aspect of teachers’ daily work… gathering evidence to find out what students know
and can do, to determine what students need to know next, and how best to teach this.’
The departments’ draft P–10 Numeracy continuum, available on the Numeracy P–12 Hub, supports
teachers to monitor students’ numeracy progress.
Since the release of the P–10 Literacy continuum in 2015, teachers have been requesting a Numeracy
continuum.
And so we’re happy to announce its development and release.
The Numeracy continuum is organised into three phases – Prep to Year 2, Years 3 to 6 and Years 7
to 10. It identifies the skills and understandings regarded as critical for numeracy success and
outlines an increasingly sophisticated progression of numeracy development from Prep to Year 10.
The draft P–10 Numeracy continuum is an optional tool to support teachers to monitor numeracy
progress across the curriculum.
It is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics and informed by Australian Curriculum,
Assessment and Reporting Authority’s National Numeracy Learning Progression version 3.
Teachers can use the continuum to support targeted numeracy teaching and learning and set clear
learning goals for students.
On the Numeracy P–12 Hub, under the Resources tab you can access professional learning PowerPoints
that provide more information about the structure and language of the continuum, and how it can be
used to monitor individual students and as part of curriculum planning.
Also under the Resources tab, you can find the Numeracy Teaching Ideas.
The Numeracy Teaching Ideas provide practical examples of how the markers on the Numeracy
continuum could be used in the classroom.
The Teaching Ideas are not exhaustive – they are designed to prompt conversation between colleagues
and spark thinking.
The first set of teaching ideas released support the sub-element Number and place value, and are
comprised of 15 sets of documents for use across Prep through to Year 10.
Throughout 2021, additional Numeracy Teaching Ideas will be added to the Numeracy Hub.
They will support teachers to explicitly teach the numeracy demands of the curriculum.
Of particular interest may be the ‘Opportunities for numeracy within the curriculum’ section of the
teaching ideas.
This section provides ideas as to what a cluster may ‘look like’ in different curriculum learning
areas.
There is a wealth of resources available to support the explicit teaching and monitoring of
numeracy within the curriculum on the Numeracy P–12 Hub.
We encourage you to go to the Hub and investigate the resources and how
they can be used in your context.
The draft P–10 Numeracy continuum and other resources on the Numeracy P–12 Hub are available
for extended trial in Terms 1 to 3 of 2021.
We genuinely welcome and encourage feedback on the draft continuum and
other resources available on the Hub.
The feedback we receive will
shape further improvements.
For more information, or to provide feedback, please click on the link on the Numeracy P–12 Hub.