Teaching Subtraction in a Metropolitan Government School

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SECTION 1: CONTEXT
Artifact 1 - School/Centre data that shape teaching and learning
School/Centre pseudonym Palm Tree Primary School
The traditional owners of
the land (The X People) and
how they are acknowledged
within the school/Centre
No acknowledgment of traditional owners of the land that I
have observed
Location type Metropolitan,
Rural, Regional, Remote
Metropolitan
School/Centre type
independent, government,
long daycare, etc.
Government
School/Centre values,
philosophical approaches,
and/or frameworks
Our school offers students a caring and nurturing learning
environment. Our dedicated and experienced teachers provide a
positive and enriching program, appreciating the individual needs
and interests of each child.
Enrolment 278 (Boys), 264(Girls)c
Socio-economic factors About 70% of the school’s students are in the top quarter in terms
of socio-economic status
% of students who have a
language background other
than English
29% of students who have a language background other than
English
School/Centre policies and
practices aligned with codes
of ethics & conduct,
including those to support
participation and learning of
students with disability
-Ensure that all students and members of the school community
are treated with respect and dignity
-Ensure that students are not discriminated against and where
necessary, are accommodated to participate in education and all
school activities
-Acknowledge and respond to the diverse needs, identities and
strengths of all students
-Provide equal opportunity to all members of the school

TEACHING SUBTRACTION 2
community
Special programs Robotics, student leadership opportunities, peer mediation,
School sports, concerts, camps, excursions and incursions
Other features important to
the context
N/A
Artifact 2 - Learner Group data that shapes planning, teaching and assessing for the
Learning Sequence
Grade/Year/Age level Prep
Learning Area/ Subject/
Topic
Numeracy (Subtraction)
Number of learners 20
Range of learner abilities 2 Students that are 6 months below the expected level 0.5, 4
students 6 months above the expected level
Linguistic, cultural,
religious and
socioeconomic factors
2 ESL students - a range of nationalities- Chinese, Indian,
Italian, Greek, French and English
Learners who identify as
Aboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander
N/A
Support provided for
learners with a disability
N/A
Other N/A
The Palm Tree Primary School is situated in the CBD (central business district) of the city
of Port Elizabeth (Hunter, & Haydon, 2019). The Palm Tree Primary School is very spacious that
was donated by the city mayor to be used as a playing ground for the pupils as well as a classroom
for their physical education lessons. The school has about 264 females and 278 males (542 students)
Monash TPA 2019 2

TEACHING SUBTRACTION 3
which increased up to 200 from the last year. Moreover, the current performance index of this
school is 1153 ICSEA, which is about 50% higher than the total marks. English is spoken by 1 % of
the students, while 29% converses in other languages like Chinese, Indian, Italian, Greek, French
and other range of nationalities (Graham, 2019). Additionally, the attendance register data of the
year 2019, reveals that 94% of total students have attended all the lessons throughout the year,
indicating that the students had good rapport with their school teachers as well as their peers. An
improved performances in the students have been noticed in their class assessment test as well as in
the ICSEA performance. Hunter, and Haydon (2019), have stated that high attendance in class is
associated with improved performance in academic. Since the school has no students with
disabilities, the school does not provide any such support.
The school is bestowed with some philosophies of life, one of which is to cater to the needs
of the slow learners. Slow learners are provided with special care by the school. Additional support
is provided to the slow learners. This is a public school and the government provides the students
with learning facilities. These facilities includes computers, which are used by students for
supporting their ICT knowledge. The school follows strict principles and policies on philosophical
tactics aimed at ensuring students are given efficient care and cultivate this translate to good moral
and discipline among the students. This school has different qualities of students. There are gifted
students as well as the slow learners who require special attention. Some are intellectually curious
who even visit the classroom after the class for the clarification. There are various Intellectual
learners, who were provided continuous encouragement to stimulate their imagination and
creativity. Mathematical creativity is normally rooted in the personal traits in the intellectual ability
of each of the individuals (Reys et al., 2015). Thus it is the intellectual capability of some of the
gifted students that helps them to understand mathematical concept. The educators help out the
students to work with open ended and ill posed problems to go with and make mistakes (Reys et al.,
2015). The school also has slow learners and the school employs several remedial methods to help
Monash TPA 2019 3