Maths Invaders at Templeton Primary School
Aidan Schanssema, Director of Teaching – Numeracy, from Templeton Primary School gives insight into the use of Maths Invaders by Year 2 classes at the
Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald on April 19th 2017 Henrietta Cook and Timna Jacks published an article entitled: “All Australian states abandon online NAPLAN (2017) due to glitches“
All Australian states and territories have now abandoned a trial of online NAPLAN tests during 2017 due to technical glitches…
… Power failures, freezing, browser issues and broken internet connections plagued initial trials of the online NAPLAN tests, according to a report by principals.
…The (ACARA) chief executive Robert Randall said … (all) states and territories were still committed to moving online by 2019, and would start that process next year (2018).
In his role as Managing Director of EdAlive Graham East visits schools around Australia. On his travels he has encountered many schools participating in the advanced trials of NAPLAN Online. For some the process has been smooth but in others problems with the school IT infrastructure has been of concern. Consistently schools express concern regarding the typed portions of the assessments and the lack of keyboarding skills on the part of the children.
A survey of the 1,100 schools participating in the NAPLAN Online trials by APPA has found that over 78% will need to allocate extra time to the teaching of keyboarding and typing skills in preparation of the new online NAPLAN testing regime.
Given this 12 month reprieve this is a golden opportunity for schools to upgrade their infrastructure and bring the children’s keyboarding and typing skills up to par. To achieve this there will need to be a substantial further investment by the schools and the responsible government departments. In the meantime we, of course recommend the adoption of Typing Tournament Online as part of this process. As a means of upgrading student’s keyboarding skills there is nothing to compare and thousands of schools across Australia have already embarked on this journey with us.
Aidan Schanssema, Director of Teaching – Numeracy, from Templeton Primary School gives insight into the use of Maths Invaders by Year 2 classes at the
The link between speed, confidence, fluency and attainment What does a confident student look like? Motivated – an enthusiastic learner who is ready to respond
Research demonstrates that the consistent use of Maths Invaders significantly boosts students’ answer speed (confidence) and attainment (maths age) at a rate well above normal