On Monday, February 22nd, the PTA meeting took the format of Mathematics Workshops for parents. These were run by Ms. Caroline Dawes, Head of Teaching and Learning, and Mrs. Kate Marnoch, Head of Early Years Services, from the Department of Education Services. The workshops aimed to give parents a taster of the methodology being used to deliver the National Numeracy Strategy and introduce them to interactive learning. Parents attended both sessions - one for infants and one for juniors - where they became the students for a lesson. Ms. Dawes and Mrs. Marnoch took them through a typical lesson and explained the methodology used. The Numeracy Strategy aims to give children an understanding and concept of number and not just teach the mechanics of solving a 'sum'. The infant lesson showed how a story, involving numbers, can be used as a stimulus for a mathematical discussion and the juniors played a 'beanbag toss' game which gave practice in multiplication facts and their associated division fact. One parent asked if she could come back to school, she enjoyed the sessions so much! We hope to run another workshop later in the year and would encourage ALL parents to come and learn more about how their children are learning Mathematics.
