The National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) has welcomed today’s decision by Education Ministers to progress the implementation of a national numeracy check in Year 1 as identified in the Better Fairer Schools Agreement.
NCEC Executive Director Jacinta Collins said this is a positive step towards early identification of students’ learning needs to target evidence-based intervention to ensure students develop the foundational numeracy skills which will stay with them throughout their schooling.
“Catholic schools across Australia currently adopt a range of systems for early tracking of mathematical proficiency and many Catholic schools and school systems are currently piloting a numeracy check for Stage One,” Ms Collins said.
“In particular, there is progress already being made in South Australia and New South Wales to advance the implementation of a numeracy check through collaboration and the sharing of tools and resources with the SA and NSW Governments and our Catholic educational authorities to support consistency across sectors.
A concentrated national focus on mathematical outcomes in Catholic schools across the country has been supported by the NCEC’s Mastery in Mathematics program which provides quality curriculum resources for Years 7 and 8 mathematics teachers, with further resources being developed for Year 9 and 10 curricula.
The resources, which are freely available to other sectors, have garnered strong interest with more than 1,400 schools and 26,768 users, across the Catholic, government and independent sector, accessing them.
“It’s encouraging to see there is an appetite for quality, evidence-based curriculum resources by teachers,” Ms Collins said. “The more we can support teachers with data, evidence and quality resources, the better equipped they will be to focus on the needs of individual learners in the classroom.”