St+Francis+Xavier,+Nauiyu,+Daly+River

I have chosen to work on making Numeracy enjoyable for all students as the focus for my project. This will entail a 2 part approach. Firstly we will implement Quicksmart as an exit program for the students sitting NAPLAN this year. For this to be successful we need the numeracy lessons to be engaging and enjoyable so the students enthusiasm increases for learning to occur. To do this we have decided to have our Curriculum Co-Ordinator plan with the teachers each week using the NTCF as the guiding document. People effected - The people directly effected by this are the classroom teachers, the co-ordinator and the students. Step one - We have set aside 45 mins out of 2.5hrs release time to work directly on Numeracy. This is to start week 1 term 2. We started Quicksmart and our planning sessions. The CC was able to sit for 45mins with most teachers, only one missed out due to the CC being on a PD on her day. The teachers were very happy about getting the extra help and it all looks really positive. The Quicksmart program is off to a slow start as the main tutor was sick all week. There were several kids who actually got to participate and they were very excited about the program. The students need to enjoy it so they continue to come to school as attendance is a real issue in our community. Lets hope this positive environment continues throughout the term and the year. I really need more PD for staff, we have the Numeracy Practitioner in Residence coming in week 3 to work with teachers. I was thinking she could do demonstation lessons in each of the classrooms to help show how numeracy can be enjoyable and engaging.......any ideas on how to best use her expertise would be appreciated. We have just had our Numeracy PIR at the school and what a fantastic asset she has been. She helped to audit all of our numeracy resources which is a job we never seem to get done. She also spent time in all classrooms helping with engaging the students in numeracy lessons. We had a Professional Learning Together to see some interesting games and ideas from Count Me In Too and how to use the resources we already have in the school. At the end of this session the teachers shared their expertise in this area and it was very affirming for the staff when they realised they have some great ideas. This helped build their confidence in teaching numeracy. It has made me realise the desperate need for the support of a numeracy expert to be available to our school so we can keep the ball rolling. Things are looking good for our 'Respectful, Responsible, Ready - a stronger future for all' outlook.
 * LAND Leaders Principal-Maj O'Neill Curriculum Coordinator-Michael Paxton ||
 * Maj O'Neill ||

Just passed hump week We have now been following the Quicksmart program for 5 weeks. We have 3 main tutors who are all our student teachers with our curriculum co-ordinator as the main person looking after the program. The students are excited about coming to the Quicksmart room to participate in it and want to stay longer than their allocated 30 mins. Classroom teachers are seeing more confidence in these students and their attendance is also improving. It will still be awhile before we see huge results but we do already see some. The other aspect of the LAND project at SFX is the planning time with the CC and classroom teachers. This is showing very good signs of success. The teachers get together every week now, the only problem is being from a small school there are many demands on the CC with him being out of the school way to often. We are still in need of much numeracy PD as well as other PD. This is a difficulty I am working on overcoming. Literacy and Numeracy are always going to be the main need at schools.

OK end of term update..... The planning sessions seem to be making quite a difference to the teaching of numeracy. Teachers are feeling they have someone they can go too for advise and after the PIR came in to the school and helped teachers gain confidence in their mathematics knowledge. Quicksmart has been very successful with all students advancing in their acheivements. I would recommend this program to all schools. It is very effective with similar results to those I have seen with the literacy program Reading Recovery.

Term 3 2009 Michael and I attended the last LAND meeting and we decided on a few areas to introduce to the staff in the next 10 working days. The one we actually showed the staff was the introduction of a self assessment sheet. Michael has developed this to help teachers share great lessons and keep track of their professional learning. (more to come)