The Regent’s School Pattaya recently held numeracy workshops for primary parents to aid their understanding in the modern teaching of math. The teaching of Mathematics has changed considerably in the recently decade; consequently, what happens in Primary School classrooms is very different to what many parents expect. The shift has moved towards children developing a much deeper understanding of the way numbers relate to each other and positively encourages mental math, wherever this is most efficient.
To help the parents begin to better understand these developments, numeracy coordinators, Hannah Way, Andrew Glenville and Andy Ingram planned and led informative workshops for parents about how calculation is taught using the 4 operations. Right from the beginning of the mathematical journey, the importance of counting skills and use of number lines is reinforced to show parents how these elementary principles and skills underpin all future learning and indeed help children to understand how written methods work.
Parents felt they benefited from the workshop.
Parents had the opportunity to trial the methods used in class and were reassured to learn that the teachers have a variety of strategies to help support children, wherever they are on their mathematical journey. Additionally, numeracy coordinators have been busy capturing children’s explanations on video to create a ‘Wiki’ page – have a look and see how our children explain their mathematical thinking and methods at http://regentsmaths.pbworks.com.
Teachers at the Regent’s School Pattaya appreciated the support of the workshops with an attendance number reaching close to 100. The learning approaches can contribute to helping with their children’s home learning.
