St. Joseph’s National School was awarded €2,000 to collaborate with Redeemer Boys’ National School, to establish a Professional Learning Community focussing on the new Mathematics Curriculum. This project aims to share best practices and teaching methodologies in the new Mathematics Curriculum, sharing successes and challenges of teaching in a DEIS Band 1 School.
School's reflection
The Féilte Bursary provided both St. Joseph’s NS and the Redeemer Boys’ School with the opportunity to collaborate on our chosen topic, which was the new Primary Maths Curriculum. We established a Professional Learning Community (PLC) that met every two weeks. This was the first establishment of a PLC for both schools, and we found it very beneficial to work alongside another DEIS Band 1 school. Within these meetings, we discussed some of the five key pedagogies as outlined in the curriculum and the research behind them. We also researched resources that would complement the pedagogies and planned lessons for our class levels, alongside another teacher.
As the lead teacher, I believe one of the most valuable aspects of this process was sitting down with other professionals and delving into something new. We were able to discuss problems that we were having in our classrooms while trying to implement one of these pedagogies and how best we could deal with them. It was incredible how the new resources acquired with the bursary supported the pedagogical practices and allowed the children to actively participate in the maths lessons. We reflected on how hands-on the new curriculum is and how we felt that there is a strong emphasis placed on using resources to help the children create their own mathematical understanding.