Numeracy

At Sunbury West, Numeracy is the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that students need to use mathematics in various situations. It involves recognising and understanding the role of mathematics in the world and having the dispositions and capacities to use mathematical knowledge and skills purposefully.

Number, measurement and geometry, statistics and probability are common aspects of most people’s mathematical experience in everyday personal, study and work situations. Equally important are the essential roles that algebra, functions and relations, logic, mathematical structure and working mathematically play in people’s understanding of the natural and human worlds, and

the interaction between them.

Why is numeracy important?

While much of the teaching of concepts and skills to support numeracy happens in the mathematics learning area, it is strengthened as students participate in activities that connect their learning in the mathematics classroom within the context of other curriculum areas.

As they move through their years of schooling at Sunbury West PS, students are exposed to mathematical:

• understanding
• fluency
• problem-solving
• reasoning.

These capabilities allow students to respond to familiar and unfamiliar situations by employing mathematics to efficiently make informed decisions and solve problems.

There is also evidence that other areas of development, such as resilience and perseverance, support achievement in numeracy.

Mathematics gives students access to important mathematical ideas, knowledge and skills. Numeracy connects this learning with their personal and work lives.

Numeracy has an increasingly important role in enabling and sustaining cultural, social, economic and technological advances.