Teaching the teachers…Numeracy Coach Nick De Palma in action at last night’s Staff Meeting
In 2021 at Holy Family we are fortunate to have Beth Hawkes our Leader of Learning and Literacy Coach and Nicholas De Palma as Numeracy Coach. Our coaches are imparting their wisdom in literacy and numeracy to our teachers together with their insights into how children learn.
Nicholas was explains that when we teach mathematics it is ideal to use a Growth Mindset approach. That is, to allow enough space in the task to allow the learner to grow and move in their learning. Nick has taught us to have a low floor and a high ceiling in the tasks set. That means the tasks are easy to get into but the ceiling of what can be learnt is high as the sky. Nick suggests that we avoid pigeon-holing children regarding the level they can attain in their learning before the lesson starts. We should always aim as high as possible. We group children heterogeneously meaning we have all sorts of learners working together to garner a range of inputs.