Welcome back! 

It was wonderful to see so many smiling faces last week. The excitement was contagious.  Thank you for supporting the MAI process  over those days. I thought I would take a moment just to refresh the purpose of the Mathematics Assessment Interview. 

MAI - Maths Assessment Interview - What is it?

The Maths Assessment Interview (MAI) is an assessment which is undertaken by each individual student prior to the commencement of Term 1 and focuses on four main areas of Mathematics- Counting, Place Value, Addition/Subtraction and Multiplication/Division. It is designed to provide the teacher with valuable data which is then used to guide our teaching. This information is entered into a database which allows us to track the progress of each student and target learning experiences at their point of need. 

Our aim is to provide engaging learning experiences which help students develop a conceptual understanding of numbers ie. understanding that each ‘number’ consists of a numeral/symbol (eg.7), a name (eg. seven) and a quantity (eg. ///////). Many children learn to count rote (just like learning the words to a song). The problem with this is that they may not develop an understanding of the number concepts. They will often not be able to give the number before or after, or understand the concepts of ‘more/less than’, and will experience difficulty grasping addition, subtraction, multiplication and division skills without this foundational knowledge. 

We are looking forward to an amazing year ahead.  Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time throughout the year.

Jeannine Ucdereli
Assistant Principal Learning and Teaching