Math Education in our Practical Maths Centre

Mathematics is a core subject and a subject which most children study throughout their School career. Math education starts in Grade 0 where the building blocks of numeracy are put in place, moving inexorably through times-tables, bonds, fractions, decimals, tessellations, geometry and onto the more esoteric realms of calculus and beyond. None of this is possible without a solid understanding of the basic principles of mathematics.

“Number concept cannot be taught but must be developed through practical activities”.

This rather startling statement inspired the development of the Junior Prep Practical Maths Centre. This Centre allows theoretical primary school maths to move into a concrete and tangible environment. Concepts, which are taught in the classroom, may here be experienced by the boys in a hands-on way.

The Practical Maths Centre is well equipped with a miniature kitchen with measuring equipment and a cooker. Counting, measuring, games, puzzles, stories, cooking all take place without the pressure of worksheets and pages of sums. Putting smarties on a cup cake, measuring the length of a room with your friends lying head to toe, filling buckets with measures of water all translate into learning through experience and classroom math games, while children grasp abstract concepts of volume, mass, height, addition and subtraction in an almost subliminal way.

The boys experience maths in real life situations and quickly start to speculate about extending their activities and applications. They learn to become practical problem solvers and make connections and links between things they already know. They gain a sense of achievement and enjoyment through carrying out their own investigations by using the practical resources.

All boys from Grade 0 – 3 have weekly access to the Practical Maths Centre. By the time they move into the Senior Primary Department where the challenges of abstract, conceptual maths await, the boys have a good understanding of the basics of primary school maths on a theoretical and practical level.

“The foundations of mathematical work and the children’s appreciation of their ability to see and describe the world mathematically is an essential outcome of early number work.” WHPS achieves this solid math education through a synergy of theoretical and practical maths teaching, which reaps rewards for the boy for years to come.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Albert Einstein

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