The teachers at Wakaaranga School have been using PR1ME for three years, and see immense value in its place as a core part of their mathematics curriculum. With the release of PR1ME K and the PR1ME K Big Books, PR1ME is now used right across the school, from year zero to six with great success.
The decision to change their programme was an easy one as it was becoming clear that the school needed to try something different to meet the learning needs of their students. Caroline von Sierakowski, Associate Principal at Wakaaranga recounts these early days fondly,
“I was surprised by how much easier it was to get going with PR1ME, we seemed to need a lot of support before we started, with our placement tests, and what books we needed, but once we were into it, it all just fell into place quite easily”.
“Now PR1ME is working really well in our school, the teachers are using small groups, and lots of materials,” She continued, “We have cross-grouping in most of our teams so the teachers can focus on delivering a smaller number of books at a deeper level.”
As a school leader, Caroline commented that one of PR1ME’s best features is the consistency it gives across the school. “At a school level, PR1ME has given us a structure that we can rely on,” “We know what material a year four student has been exposed too, we know that they have worked with algorithms, learnt how to regroup, and the place value knowledge that comes along with it,” “It really ensures each of our teachers are delivering higher quality maths programs, even if maths is not their specialty.”
The children and parents absolutely love PR1ME too, “They love the books, they how colourful they are, and that they have their own book to practise in,” “They are the perfect discussion tool for three way conferences, and the parents can understand easily what their children are learning”
With PR1ME, Wakaaranga are seeing fantastic results. “We are seeing significant gains in engagement, student confidence and ability, and while our results are pleasing, we know that it is important to give PR1ME the time to be thoroughly embedded,” she continued “When we do review it, we can be absolutely certain that PR1ME has had the impact we were looking for, though from how we are tracking so far, that is definitely the case!”