- Reduces teacher workload. Lesson plans are done for you. You always know what to teach, when to teach it, and how to teach it. See Samples
- Whole school - covers years 0 through 8. Works for multi-year classes (see a sample plan for a mixed year 1/2 class).
- It works. Every school that has fully implemented Numicon has seen a significant improvement in achievement across all year levels. See case studies from Wigram School and St Patrick's School.
- You can be sure that you are covering 100% of the NZ curriculum.
- Evidence-based with sound pedagogy delivering Structured Maths.
- Supports formative assessment.
- No boring workbooks. All children are engaged and enjoy maths, often for the first time.
- Teachers enjoy teaching maths, often for the first time. Explicit teaching. Teachers will increase their own knowledge.
- Inclusive - all children learn together regardless of where they're at.
What is the Numicon programme?
- A well resourced, quality, whole school, structured maths programme using a CPA approach.
- Supports teachers and builds teacher knowledge.
- Utilises "Science of Learning" to ensure that every child succeeds and remembers what they learn.
- Covers the NZ curriculum - new content being written right now to ensure that everything is covered.
- No student workbooks - there is evidence to show that children disenage when using workbooks. Numicon is "Maths in Hand".
- Active learning - manipulatives are used for every year level to scaffold learning and enable deep understanding of maths concepts.
- Online teaching handbooks that include lesson plans, explicit teaching, software, formative assessment, teacher support videos.
- Student investigation books provided for years 4 to 8.
- Online PLD - free webinars to get teachers started and for follow-up.
- We can show you the data proving that all children achieve.
For more detail, please view the following slides. (You can download this presentation as a PDF document by clicking here, or simply view it online below.)
What will we get if we choose Numicon?
- Access for every teacher to Numicon Online and Firm Foundations Online. These show you what to teach, when to teach it, and how to teach it, with ample room for innovation and your own ideas.
- Apparatus for every student in every class, tailored to each year level.
- Student problem books (years 4-8).
- Free attendance at our webinars to help you get started.
- Support from our nation-wide team of Numicon consultants.
Candy Hollier, Whangamata Area School
Year 4/P5 mata Area School
'Choose Numicon' Webinar
- In-person PLD. We can provide additional support in person at your school.
- Hard-copy teaching guides (which are identical to the online teaching guides provided).
- "Numicon Intervention Programme" and "Big Ideas" for students who have fallen behind.
- "Breaking Barriers" for students who need to learn more slowly.
- Pan Balances for schools that don't already have them
Have questions?
Call us on 0800 678 581.
Email us at info@edushop.nz.
Register to attend one of our free Zoom sessions where we will go through the programme in more detail and answer your questions.
FAQs
Q
"Doesn’t yet cater for the advanced year 8 students." "It doesn't cater for beyond year 6."
"Hard to implement a whole school approach if several teachers are saying in practice it can't really cater to our highest learners as we prepare them for high school."
A
Yes, Numicon totally supports Year 8 learners. The new curriculum has extended the learning expectations for this level, so more material is being written. Feedback from all our schools using Numicon at this level shows there are three groups of students that emerge:
- Students who really need the Numicon Intervention Programme to provide a strong foundation, or start with Numicon
- Students who were a little behind and their starting place was Numicon 4 or 5
- Students who were at level and enjoyed the learning in Numicon 6, which is having material added to it to extend to the new curriculum.
Q
"I can't find resources I need on the website."
A
Join one of our free Zooms to have a tour.
Follow the Home Index and all the links are easy to find.
The year’s overview page has all the hyperlinks to the planning and the teaching resources. Easy!
Q
"Assumes that students have come through the programme since starting school (e.g. Year 5 work leads on from activities/work/etc that they have done in the past). How is this combatted within the programme?"
A
At the beginning of the books, there is a 'Getting Started' week of activities to familiarise the teachers and students with the manipulatives, the new lesson experience, and assessment opportunities for the teachers.
For the Year 8’s – use the Book 5 Getting Started Activity Group.
Q
"Does not have a follow-up from explicit teaching e.g. practice book and then further online practice (Maths Pro) like PRIME does. Through Maths Pro (online) PRIME has a very good diagnostic and formative evaluation/assessment of how each individual and your whole class did with each objective explicitly taught. The online programme also gives revision/consolidation and extension activities for each individual learner and whole class. All online without the paper and pen marking and inputting results into a spreadsheet to then heat map."
A
All other providers have a book (i.e. evidence) of learning and significant online capabilities which I think will help meet the demands of the government's reporting expectations. Having the home/school online link is awesome too.
Numicon absolutely follows an explicit teaching approach – it began all this movement internationally! Read all the samples at this link.
The lesson format is exactly the same in the new curriculum:
- Starter with teaching following the I do, we do, you do approach
- Paired or individual follow-up activities. Children recording their work in their exercise books
- Whole class discussion/games
The cyclic nature of the teaching progressions allows many opportunities for students to reinforce their learning but also see the links with all the strands in Maths. You will see this in the samples.
Assessment with Numicon is mainly through a formative approach:
- Where teachers are looking and listening for students to demonstrate their understanding and also promptly correct any misconceptions or wrong thinking. They don’t have to wait for a test later in the term to discover this when it’s often too late.
- Assessment cards are provided for the students to self-assess, or the teacher can use these for summative assessment
- Explorer Progress Books provide the opportunity for the students to show their learning at the end of the week and also apply their learning in a new context.
- The students’ learning is recorded in a Student Tracker – an Excel spreadsheet.
Q
"Oxford Maths showed a clear link of how their lessons directly taught the learning expectations in the new curriculum. Do you have a sheet that is similar? It would really, really help if you did."
A
Yes, all the links are provisionally written while we are waiting for the new curriculum to be published. You can see them on the Numicon website at this link.
Q
"Are you going to be running any promotions for schools in terms of affording the 'extras'? It's quite pricey stuff (amazing stuff though)."
A
Yes. You can see the prices on our website. They are quality products that last for a very long time.
You can see a detailed view of all the resources you will receive in the Government offer here. This is a wonderful gift!
Q
What happens at the end of the 2 years? Will we have to pay for the online resources?
A
Read about this on the Tahurangi website - Q & A
'The resources will be available until our children are at the new Curriculum level.'
PLD - some considerations
Professional learning support with an expert facilitator.
Our free webinars, planned for the beginning of next year, are part of the Ministry’s support. They will help you and your teachers with getting started with Numicon. The webinars will cover how to use and navigate the online teacher handbooks, what the manipulatives and materials are and how they are used in conjunction with the teacher handbooks, and how Numicon aligns with and provides full coverage of the revised curriculum. They will get you set up for success with planning your first week of learning maths with Numicon.
However, it is just a start, and that is all that can be offered for free with the funding provided. Asking staff to engage with and learn what, for many, is an entirely different approach to teaching maths from what they have experienced in their entire careers, is a big endeavour. For some teachers, giving them a great resource and saying ‘go for it’ is enough. For many, that’s not enough.
As leaders, you know about all the complexities and nuances of affecting change in a way that positively impacts on student achievement. We are absolutely buzzing that Numicon has been chosen as one of the Ministry’s funded resources, because we know with certainty that, in the hands of skilled teachers, it accelerates achievement.
We are committed to helping schools realise this acceleration and so Maths Associates provides a range of support options from our expert facilitators to help build the skills of teachers in not just using Numicon, but in the theory and practice of structured mathematics through a concrete/ pictorial/ abstract approach. This is also the emphasis of the new curriculum which we can unpack and support you to implement it.
The schools which get the most out of Numicon, in our experience, procure in-depth PLD across 1-2 years with our facilitators. Other, less in-depth, support options include teacher-only days, a series of staff meetings, maths leadership development, one-to-one modelling, coaching and mentoring, teacher-aide workshops, etc.
Our team is available to discuss your specific needs and arrange bespoke PLD for your school based on those needs. We can create a plan to raise staff capabilities and ultimately student outcomes in Maths with your school. We know school leaders are budgeting for 2025 and beyond at the moment, and so please feel free to get in contact if you want more information or to discuss options. I want to stress again that you don’t need extra PLD support to get started with Numicon. However, we think it will make a big difference in helping to get finished!
We want to stress again that you don’t need extra PLD support to get started with Numicon. However, we think it will make a big difference in helping to get it implemented well and not wasted to sit on the shelf gathering dust!