Improving Attainment in Literacy and Numeracy

5 June 2003 - Murrayfield Stadium Conference Centre

Report by Eleanor Coner

 5 June 2003 - Murrayfield Stadium Conference Centre
 

Report by Eleanor Coner
This conference was organised by Learning and Teaching Scotland and was held at the Murrayfield Stadium Conference Centre on Thursday 5th June.

The event was an opportunity for schools and local authorities to show how they are trying to improve the literacy and numeracy skills of their pupils. After listening to the obligatory "keynote speeches", we were able to get down to the nitty gritty of the day and find out what was happening around Scotland.

Delegates were invited to attend three workshops and two of mine looked particularly relevant as they concerned projects attempting to involve parents in their child's learning.

The first workshop had the title "Encouraging parental involvement in children's learning at P3 and P4". It took me quite a while to find the room as the presenters had disguised the door and the room itself to look like a spaceship. Staff from the Western Isles Education Department had made the long trip down from Stornoway to tell us about their "Space Quest" literacy and numeracy event. This was the last in a series of special days held in local halls in the Western Isles to encourage parental participation. It involved parents and children working their way around a series of bases and taking part in games, quizzes and computer activities. I actually tried my hand at some of these at the conference. I first had to fill in my details as part of my hazardous mission and write down my previous space travel experience and then had a go at drawing constellations by trekking the stars and a space word search. Judging by the photos and the written comments from parents on display, it seemed as though the event had been a great success and had even encouraged several "reluctant" parents to get involved. I was really impressed by their guides for parents which were written in parent-friendly language with short paragraphs of handy hints to help their child.

After lunch, I heard about the Mathematics Recovery Assessment and Teaching Programme. Maths Recovery can be used as an intervention for children who are having problems with maths. We saw a film of a P5 pupil who, together with her learning support teacher went through this programme. The little girl was assessed through interviews, video screening and then in depth work. This assessment gets the teacher right to the heart of the problem and they can then work from the child's base and it isn't just "filling in the gaps". The pupil is given time to think and is asked how he/she got their answers. The child is only moved onto the next stage when they are ready. It was amazing to watch the video of this P5 girl who went from being unsure of herself, obviously not enjoying her maths and easily distracted to a confident, attentive pupil who enjoyed thinking problems through and telling the teacher how she had arrived at her answer.

The last workshop of the day was a presentation of a project carried out in a school in Aberdeenshire which resulted from a teacher looking for ways to develop Early Intervention advice. Each week children were sent home with packs of numeracy games, which they played with their parents and/or other adults. The teacher had found that involving parents in their child's learning seemed to improve the child's interest in maths and believed that attainment had also improved.

The day ended with a presentation from Brian Boyd who is from the Department of Language Education at Strathclyde University. He spoke about the importance of supporting family learning and that we should see the child not as an individual, but more as part of a unit. Brian also stressed how important it is to share good practice both at a national level, but also within authorities.
 

Useful Websites

www.readtogether.co.uk
This is a Scottish Executive website with lots of ideas to help promote the sharing of reading between adults and children. It includes suggested books for different age groups.

www.nrich.maths.org.uk
The NRICH Online Maths Club

www.yahooligans.com/school_bell/math/games_and_puzzles
Yahooligans puzzles and activities
 

05 Jun 2003