Ava, a Year 4 student at Bruthen Primary School (VIC), responded honestly when teachers asked her and her classmates what they thought about maths; Ava said: “we told them we hated maths.”

Ava’s perspective and experience with maths was transformed after the school introduced new ways of learning and engaging with students. Through an intensive professional development program, teachers deepened their understanding of empowering students as self-regulated learners, reading comprehension strategies and maths teaching. Teachers put their learnings into practice in maths and literacy classes by encouraging students to co-construct learning goals, evidence their learning and develop a language for talking about their learning.

Over the 18 months of the project, students have made gains in maths and reading. Of note, an increase from 43% to 77% of students have made one year or more growth in maths.

Comparing her former outlook to now, Ava said: “So many worksheets were boring, doing the same thing over and over again. Thank goodness they listened to us, now maths is so much better. It is a lot more fun, we do more challenging activities, get to use different materials and we can show our thinking in our workbook, make a model or use a book creator to video us working or talking about our thinking.”

*The story uses a fictional student name