Page 17 - link magazine

swindonlink.com • July 2009 17
Two Swindon primaries win national awards
A maths initiative at Moredon Primary School that has led to soaring SATs results has been recognised with a national award from the Times
Educational Supplement.
Sixteen staff from the school at- The walls have a whitehoard area lems - questions displayed on answer, before explaining it to the
tended the firstTES Primary Award where fresh problems appear each large laminated sheets. Working in rest of the class.
ceremony at the Park Lane Hilton day and children are encouraged to groups, they discuss the best ap- "Our problem was that pupils
to hear that Moredon has won the try them at any time. proach and work through a series get into SATs and often don't know
award for Outstanding Numeracy Youngsters also tackle Big Prob- of prompts to come up with the how to approach a question," said
Initiative of the Year. Also at the ° Ms McLaren. "Our approach is far
ceremony, hosted by Rory Bremner, i , '^ less formal and children engage in
were staff from Drove Primarvwho - . serious mathematical discussions
picked up the Outstanding Corn- ,(^ _ T a without worrying about getting
munity Involvement trophy. things wrong."
Moredon'sassistantheadteacher + i . s After only one year of the initia-
Violet McLaren, right with her class, five, Moredon's SATs results last
was responsible for creating a year showed an increase of 13 per
teaching strategy which encour- °, cent achieving Level 5 in maths, a
ages youngsters to learn about total of 57 per cent of pupils.
maths through discussion. She
developed the idea after obsery- -?'
ing teaching methods in Chinese
schools. Each classroom has a
Working Wall which shows how
to perform mathematical functions.
The Blackthorn School
Ar Maths for the masses in May of Photography
Greendown School does not accept some people's proudly held view that Digital image-making
they're not good at the subject and, as a specialist maths school, is doing and black and white printing
all it can to demonstrate that maths is embedded in everyday life. based at our specialist
In late May staff and pupils held in a'maths in the high s treet' day, and teaching centre near Cricklade
,down
set up tables in the town cen tre explaining the use of maths in sport, the Evening, day and weekend
body, nature, magic, art, food, school and construction. Hands on activities courses for beginners and
promoted much amusement and discussion amongst the public. advanced photographers
,off Organiser Gillian Sarjent said there will be follow up courses to help www.photography-courses.com
Comic Bonner discussing maths prob- parents learn more about their children's maths and how to improve Tel: 01454 416937
lems with Anne Snelgrove MP numeracy. or 07920 116492

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