Engaging parents in the learning at St Aidan’s

Principal Dr Elizabeth Ricketts with parents taking part in maths activities

This week, schools recognise Literacy and Numeracy Week (25-31 August), a nationwide opportunity to highlight the importance of literacy and numeracy skills to student learning and celebrate learning and teaching in schools.

The focus of Literacy and Numeracy Week this year is getting parents involved in literacy and numeracy activities taking place in schools.

In the lead up to Literacy and Numeracy Week, St Aidan’s Primary School, Rooty Hill held a Mathematics information night for parents on Tuesday 12 August. The purpose of the evening was to not only share valuable information with parents about the syllabus but to engage them in a variety of mathematical activities, as experienced by the students every day.

Attended by more than fifty parents of students from Kindergarten to Year 6, St Aidan’s principal Dr Elizabeth Ricketts said it was a very productive workshop, with parents expressing excitement and enthusiasm for the learnings gained.

‘We know that parental engagement and involvement has a positive influence on student learning outcomes,’ said Dr Ricketts. ‘Parents were very impressed with the way their children are learning mathematics, particularly with Mathematical understanding being such a focus. They agreed that being able to understand the what, why and how of Mathematics is just as important as getting the correct answer.’

Parent, Sonia Derjani said she took away a lot from the evening.

‘It was an interesting, informative and fun night,’ said Sonia. ‘I learnt different ways to add, subtract, divide and multiply and the use of concrete materials helped us to work out the answers. It is so different to the way I learnt at school.’

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