1. PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN NUMERACY St. Mary’s Primary School - Strabane

2. Why?

3. The Government shares the widely held view that partnership with parents can be highly effective in supporting and complementing the work done in school…
Schools should include in their Literacy and Numeracy policies their plan for the involvement of parents in the way their child learns…..
(Pg 21 Para 2.43)

4. Attitudes to Mathematics: Parents
Personal experiences
Negative feelings
Right/wrong answer
Genuine Fear of maths/almost a phobia
Mental Arithmetic/Tables
Quick fire questions
Parents unknowingly pass on these negative attitudes to their children.(Professor. Jo Bowler)

5. IN THE PAST
Arithmetic – the four rules of number
Pages of sums without any underlying understanding
Drill and practice. Rote and Repetition.
IN CLASSROOMS TODAY
Processes are Important. Develop skills to solve problems.
Encouraged to work mentally
Think for themselves
Mathematical games and puzzles. Ipads and Interactive w/b.

6. Paired Maths Pupil Survey
Yes No
Maybe
I am good at Maths
74% 6%
20%
Time passes quickly when I am doing Maths
51%
29%
Maths is very important
Anything is better than Maths
40%
28%
32%
Maths is a good thing to learn
93% 1%
Maths can be boring
33%
53%
14%
I like Maths homework
70%
15%
When I leave school I will not use Maths
23%
47%
30%
Reading is better than Maths
42%
35%
Maths makes me unhappy
19%
67%
Paired Maths Pupil Survey

7. Why Paired Games? Games can help to: Stimulate children
Improve their mental skills
Provide opportunities for children to ask as well as answer questions
Help to develop their potential to think creatively
Develop children’s language skills
Family/Social Dimension

8. Have Fun While You Learn
Positive early experiences help children to believe that they can do maths
Children can:
Develop confidence and self-esteem
Benefit from the experience of Learning through fun
Develop social skills

9. How will the paired games be organised?
Your child will choose and take home a game on Thursday
The game must be returned to school on Tuesday and another game will be selected. This will continue for 4 weeks. The children will play 2 games per week (Please try to ensure that games are returned with all the contents intact - a list of contents will be found in each bag.)

10. The games will then be checked and made ready.
Your child will also receive a ‘Record Book’ for the games.
In this little book they can give their own opinion of the game – did they find it easy/difficult, fun or boring, and would they recommend it to their friends.
The information gathered in these record books will be used to inform the nature of future games.

11. The game I played this week was called
___________________________________
This game was easy 1 
2 
3 
4 
difficult 
This game was fun/boring
I would recommend this game yes/no
This game taught me to
______________________________________
Signed __________________ pupil
Signed __________________ parent

12. Conclusion of Scheme
You will be asked to give your comments about the programme.
This will be analysed and fed back to you.
The Children’s efforts and achievements will be recognised with certificates at assembly.

13. Thanks to;
The Primary Four Teachers; (Mrs Harkin, Mrs Strawbridge and Mrs Cooke).
Classroom Assistants; (Miss Clifford, Mrs McGinley and Mrs Finlay).
Parents
Mr McHugh/ Mr Lafferty/Mr McMahon