A local school is one of five in Ontario being recognized by the Education Quality and Accountability Office.
In 2015, St. Luke Catholic Elementary School saw a big jump in the number of students who achieved the provincial math standards in EQAO testing. Principal Susan van Schaayk says they introduced a new program a few years ago to help students reach that standard. She says it is a guideline of when to teach and which expectations to teach.
Shaayk says there is a real balance of how math is taught in the classroom.
In 2013, 17 per cent of students at St. Luke were not achieving the provincial math standards. But thanks to a change in the program development, those same students went on to achieve the standard in grade six.
Schaayk says every school should want to see their students succeed. She says they always want students to move forward and that’s what they have been able to accomplish.
Shaayk says they have a lot of consistency at the school with experienced teachers. She says those teachers have been there a long time and are passionate about teaching math. She says they have similar philosophy’s and approaches in teaching the subject.
Shaayk says they don’t use a math program, they use a ministry curriculum expectation and that drives how they teach. She adds this allows them to have group work, individual work, utilizes technology and more.
Shaayk says students need to know how to use a multiplication table and how to divide. She says even though these are old fashioned skills they are necessary skills and their students recognize that.
The other schools recognized by EQAO are: St Edmund Separate School in Mississauga, St. Aloysius Catholic Elementary School in Kitchener, École élémentaire publique Charlotte-Lemieux in Ottawa and École élémentaire catholique Saint-Noël-Chabanel in Toronto.
