Learning from others: A visit to Tamaki primary

Today we had the amazing opportunity to visit other schools and learn new and different ways of engaging and support learners.

Our first visit was to Tamaki Primary. We were very lucky to be able to visit Ashley's wonderful year 3/4 class. On this class learns were given an open end problem which in encouraged thinking about mathematical ideas. Today they focused on equal sharing. They were given an open ended problems,

A gang of cunning cats came across  an abandoned cat food truck. They made off with 48 tins of cat food. We don’t know how many cats there are , but we know that they  share their loot equally.   

How many tins might each cat have?

Learners worked mixed ability groups and used had material, paper and pens. There was a lot of discussion and some great ideas being shared including the the idea that if 2 cats get 24 tins each then 24 cats get 2 tins. It was really great seeing year 3/4 learners engaging with maths in such a detailed way.

I really enjoyed seeing this engagement and discussion around maths. I want to encourage more of this mathematical thinking by giving my learner open end problems.

During the visit we also went to some year 5/6 classes, it was lovely seeing the next step for my Learners. I saw some great example of building a positive classroom environment.

-With a class treaty

-Using story to discuss positive relationships

-Learner sharing who they are through art.

Thank you so much to Tamaki Primary for hosting us and allowing us to see there wonderful school in action.