Jo Boaler is a British education author and is Professor of Mathematics Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education.

Boaler is involved in promoting mathematics education reform and equitable mathematics classrooms. Read more about Jo Boaler here.

In the holidays all our teaching staff were lucky to have the opportunity to go to Hamilton to listen to Jo Boaler speak about the latest research and thinking about teaching Maths. 

Thank you so much to our Board of Trustees for supporting this.

This was the perfect opportunity for the staff to focus on what the teaching and learning of Maths looks like at SFOA and also work together to ensure that we are delivering the best Maths programme we can.

One of the ideas that we want the children to understand is that anyone can do maths. Children are not born with or without a Maths brain. Anyone can do Maths - it's all about mindset.

" The new evidence from brain research tells us that everyone , with the right teaching and messages, can be successful in math, and everyone can achieve the highest levels in school. There are a few children who have very particular special educational needs that make math learning difficult, but for the vast majority of children -about 95%- any levels of school math are within their reach".

                                                                                            Mathematical Mindsets pg 4

You can listen to Jo Boaler talking about this on this link. This is an awesome podcast where Jo explains the science behind learning.  She also talks about the messages parents can give their children that are really important. She gives parents some great ideas about how to promote Maths in the home as well.

Next newsletter:  The Power of Mistakes and Struggle