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- Testimonials: What our User Group has to say about the NumberSense Mathematics Programme
Feedback from the fourth term workshops:
“By writing this tiny note I want to express gratitude for the helping hand that the NumberSense Mathematics Programme has been for me and my school. There are few training sessions where I take home fresh ideas, practical guidance and critical thinking skills. The NumberSense workshops that I have had the opportunity to attend are one of those. Your programme really makes a huge difference in the special needs of the children in my class.”
“Thank you so much for the wonderful course today. I learnt a great deal and enjoyed connecting with other teachers.”
“Thanks for another great workshop. We can’t wait to get started on the programme.”
Teacher, Selborne Primary
“Our boys have been using the workbooks for 3 years and although they are flying through them, they also challenge the boys who find the CAPS curriculum too easy. We have also recently been told that the Grade 8 mathematics average at Selborne College has improved by nearly 15% and we are in the process of putting all these statistics together along with the Conquesta Olympiad and ANA results; we are confident that we are going to find that we have had a steady increase in overall results. We are very excited about how the boys are challenged by the NumberSense Mathematics Programme because we feel that the CAPS curriculum alone does not do so. The weaker boys are not as advanced but their attitude towards mathematics has changed in the following ways: they complete a page a day, their mental arithmetic has improved and they are not nervous when approaching word problems.
We are planning to hold a parent-child mathematics challenge because we want to show the parents what their children are capable of. This will cover the basic concepts taught in the NumberSense Workbooks and will be in the form of a race with a few family mathematics ideas thrown in. We are really excited about the progress that has been made thanks to the NumberSense Mathematics Programme.”
Mr Gamiet: Principal, A.W. Barnes Primary School
“For many years our school has struggled to improve the quality of the teaching of mathematics and raise the level of mathematics proficiency amongst our teachers and children. The major challenge for our teachers has been the large numbers of children in our classes. The NumberSense Mathematics Programme was introduced to our school earlier this year by Brombacher and Associates, through the mediation of Shikaya. It has been the best intervention implemented at our school for a number of years. Small-group teaching was re-introduced and the benefits were immediately visible. All the children in the class were kept busy: while one group of children were on the mat, the other children carried on with activities in their NumberSense Workbooks. The teachers were all excited about the introduction of the NumberSense Mathematics Programme and a remarkable improvement in mathematical literacy has been achieved. Children in Grade 1 have extended their numeracy capabilities and the children’s ability to solve problems has improved. The Grade 2 and 3 teachers are excited because at the start of each year they can simply proceed with the activities in the NumberSense Workbooks as the children now have the ability to work independently. The improvement in mathematics teaching has led to some of our children receiving awards for mental mathematics, reading and spelling at a recent East London District competition run by the Department of Education. We believe the confidence that the children have acquired in mathematics assists them in the other learning areas too.”
Liza, Namibia
“I just wanted to offer my sincere thanks to the NumberSense Mathematics Programme developers. My daughter is completing her final NumberSense Workbook in the next few weeks of Term 1, Grade 7. The NumberSense Mathematics Programme has given her a wonderful foundation that will support her future mathematics learning.”
Stina, Kempton Park
“I am using your workbooks in a community mathematics clinic that I started at my church. Any child can attend these classes for free on a Wednesday afternoon. The children vary from Gr 1 to Gr 12. There are approximately 30 – 40 children who attend, of which 16 of them are from the local Children’s Home. Your workbooks really help me to handle the ability levels of the wide variety of children.”
- Affiliates: Zenex / Maths Amp / Metro South Education District
- Affiliates: Teacher's Plus
- Affiliates: Shikaya
Shikaya is a non-profit, civil society organisation that recognises the crucial role that teachers can play in deepening and strengthening South Africa’s democracy. As such, Shikaya supports the personal and professional development of teachers to create a South Africa in which young people in schools are inspired and supported to become responsible citizens and future leaders in our democracy, valuing diversity, human rights and peace.
Shikaya and the NumberSense Mathematics Programme
Shikaya has partnered with Brombacher and Associates to provide in-class mathematics training to Foundation Phase teachers in schools across South Africa. As part of the project, NumberSense Workbooks are supplied to every Grade 1, 2 and 3 child in each school. Teacher support and training is provided alongside the distribution of the workbooks so that they are used in the best possible way. The mathematics teacher training project started in 2014 with 3 schools in the Central District in Cape Town and has rapidly grown to 12 schools: 8 in Cape Town, 2 in East London and 2 in Port Elizabeth. Key similarities between the project schools are that they are situated in low socio-economic areas and have teachers that are eager to learn. Each Grade 1, 2 and 3 teacher is visited weekly in their classroom by a coach who instructs the teacher in their mathematics teaching.
Brombacher and Associates look forward to a continued positive relationship with Shikaya and trust that their combined efforts will help to improve the standard of mathematics education in the Foundation Phase across South Africa.
Shikaya - Affiliates: JumpStart
JumpStart is an NPO with a background in youth development programmes. Their name, ‘JumpStart’, and credo – ‘Thinking it forward’, encompasses all that they do in order to give those less-privileged a decisive ‘jump-start’ through three essential keys to development: education, qualification and employment. Since 2002, it has run youth education, skills development and social entrepreneurial initiatives to sustainably empower South African youth. With origins in the ICT sector, the programme grew into an industry-accredited learning and employment programme that is known today as the JumpStart Software Labs.
Two key factors have had a dramatic effect on the success of the JumpStart Software Labs:
- The first came from the learners themselves. From early on, a culture of “Think It Forward” began to develop within the JumpStart Labs. Previous learners gave of their own time and new-found expertise to jump-start their peers and new recruits. This fostered a mentorship relationship amongst the learners which continues to this day.
- The second significant factor was the close partnership with private companies. The number of software engineers in South Africa is limited and the opportunity exists to grow this capacity with local resourcing. The JumpStart Engagement Model, a commercial service offering to the local economy, was initiated to fill the gap. Under private company mentorship, the learners took to the market with their new-found careers to deliver on real-world software solutions.
More recently, JumpStart has extended its programme into schools in the South African townships of Diepsloot, Eldorado Park, Soweto and the Underberg region of KZN. The emphasis here is on educational interventions to address the pre-requisite foundations in Numeracy and Computer Science. JumpStart then partnered with Aarnout Brombacher of Brombacher and Associates in using the NumberSense Mathematics Programme to address the area of numeracy.
JumpStart and the NumberSense Mathematics Programme
JumpStart has adopted the NumberSense Mathematics Programme as a vehicle for making a difference in the mathematical experiences of children in schools supported by JumpStart. Schools are supplied with workbooks for the children, appropriate training for the teachers and year-round, in-class and in-school support by a team of appropriately qualified and trained interns. We call these interns the ‘JumpStart Tutors’. The tutor is there to support the teachers in the NumberSense Mathematics Programme and to provide on-the-ground, quality assurance of the programme’s success. The tutors are often unemployed matriculants and JumpStarts aims to help develop their academic and career aspirations while they intern at JumpStart schools. In addition to the workbooks, training and support, the JumpMedia Labs and JumpStart Software Labs have partnered with Brombacher and Associates to develop both video and software support for the programme. This support will enable the programme to scale effectively.
The video materials will consist of short vignettes that deal with topics such as the importance of the development of number sense and the implementation of the NumberSense Mathematics Programme. These videos will offer support on how to use the workbooks effectively and discuss the role of the different features of the workbooks. Software that is currently being developed will assist the project manager to monitor the progress of the children in their workbooks at all schools and in so doing enable the project to deliver workbooks to children as they finish one workbook and need the next. Other software applications include management of annual testing and monitoring of progress suites. As connectivity in rural schools is not always possible, the NumberSense Mathematics Programme applications are made accessible via mobile tablet and iPad, enabling teachers and field workers to capture the information on site with immediate remote access and reporting.
JumpStart
