Summer fun with the Everyday Maths Hub

We’re collating the best summer school holiday activities for all students and parents/carers to get everyone excited about using the Everyday Maths Hub over the summer school holiday period.

Whether it’s planning a road trip, exploring the great outdoors, entertaining over the Christmas period or diving into a new passion project, there’s an activity to get our audience motivated and excited.

Commencing from December when school holidays are top of mind, we are partnering with the newly launched Parent App. This enables us to share an article across the newsfeed of the Parent App while also building excitement across all 2400 NSW public school websites, and our own very popular social channels.

The goal of the campaign being to engage students and their parents and drive awareness of all the resources available to them over the summer period.

The Everyday Maths Hub continues to expand and remains a great resource for teachers and schools to engage parents and carers in mathematics and numeracy, helping to enhance students' attitudes, confidence, engagement and success.

Looking for resources for specific years? Visit the Everyday Maths Hub and filter by year level.

Do you have questions or suggestions? Please contact nswms@det.nsw.edu.au.

Mathematics Professional Learning

Are you looking for new and exciting mathematics professional learning (PL) opportunities?

In 2023, the NSW Mathematics Strategy PL team are excited to be offering these new Becoming Mathematicians courses for teachers and leaders:

Big Ideas to Start Strong across K-6

Have you ever wanted to learn more about some of the big ideas and core concepts that underpin much of the NSW syllabus? Well, Becoming Mathematicians: Big Ideas to Start Strong across K-6 is a sustained professional learning course designed just for you!

This course replaces the Working with the Big Ideas (3-6) and Starting Strong (K-2) courses that were offered in 2021. The new combined course supports a whole-school approach to the leading, teaching and learning of mathematics.

Find out more about Becoming Mathematicians: Big Ideas to Start Strong across K-6.

Effective teaching practices in mathematics across K-6

Have you ever wanted to learn more about some effective teaching practices you can use in your mathematics classroom? Are you curious about the importance of dispositions, culture and how we can support students to think and work like mathematicians? Well, Becoming Mathematicians: Effective Teaching Practices in Mathematics across K-6 is a sustained professional learning course designed just for you!

Effective Teaching Practices in Mathematics across K-6 promotes access and equity for the diverse range of students across NSW Public Schools. It explores high-quality mathematics tasks, intentional teaching practices and the importance of a productive classroom culture.

Find out more about Becoming Mathematicians: Effective Teaching Practices in Mathematics across K-6.

Number Talks and Number Sense Routines across K-6

Do you want to deepen your knowledge about number talks? Are you curious about the difference between a number talk, a dot card talk and a routine like ‘Which one doesn’t belong’? Do you want to learn more about what makes teaching routines effective so you can refine your practice? Well, Becoming Mathematicians: Using Number Talks and Number Sense Routines across K-6 is a short course designed just for you!

Using Number Talks and Number Sense Routines across K-6 delves into how different teaching routines in mathematics can be used well to support student learning. This course is designed to build upon and enrich existing teacher knowledge of various teaching routines of mathematics.

Find out more about Becoming Mathematicians: Using Number Talks and Number Sense Routines across K-6.

We are really looking forward to the opportunity to work, learn and play mathematics with you and your school team in 2023. For further information on other mathematics PL opportunities, please refer to Mathematics professional learning.

MGT top mathematicians engage schools in the Riverina

The Mathematics Growth Team took their message to the regional teachers meeting at four schools over three days. “We’re here to deliver the best professional learning we can, to help teachers develop their expertise and confidence in teaching maths,” said Eddie Woo.

“We’re called Instructional Leaders and that’s exactly what we do: channelling our passion for maths to demonstrate evidence-based teaching practices that deepen student learning. We want students to experience the wonderful things maths can do and understand how it opens so many doors in any study, subject or career you can think of.”

“What we share is very context-specific and matched to the particular needs of teachers and students in each school. It’s for the long term, supporting teachers in getting to know their student community so they can set them up – maths-wise – for whatever they choose to do.”

The Mathematics Growth Team is one of ten initiatives within the department’s NSW Mathematics Strategy, which aims to strengthen the teaching of mathematics, develop a new generation of mathematics teachers, and engage students of all ages and their parents and carers in understanding the rewards that come from a sound knowledge of such a bedrock subject.

The team began its work in January 2020. Since starting in the Riverina in January last year, more than 50 teachers at 16 local schools have been supported in their teaching of mathematics. The Team is aiming to expand to have 22 teachers as Instructional Leaders by 2025.

The schools visited were:

• Albury High School
• Jindera Public School
• Narrandera High School
• Coolamon Central School

For more information about the Mathematics Growth Team please contact MGT@det.nsw.edu.au.

Australia’s media superstars announced by Ed Husic MP, Minister for Industry and Science

Australia's newest Superstars of STEM – 60 diverse brilliant scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians want to step into the media spotlight as science experts.

Announced on 18 November in conjunction with Science and Technology Australia, the new superstars reflect the strong diversity of women and non-binary people in Australian science and technology.

The superstars include 3 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander scientists, 6 new superstars from regional Australia, and many other superstars from a wide array of economic, social and cultural backgrounds.

Minister Husic congratulated the newest Superstars of STEM on stepping into the public arena to help inspire the next generations of diverse young Australians into STEM. The NSW Mathematics Strategy team will reach out to the superstars to discuss support for our Ambassador Program.