Hands-on Professional Learning Workshops
delivered by Top Ten Numeracy Coaches
Download an overview
Full-day workshops: Our co-founders run whole-school, hands-on mathematics curriculum days as intensive workshops. Our workshops are very practical, hands-on and developmentally-sequenced, highlighting the pedagogy behind the units, while also showing teachers examples that can be used in the classroom the very next day. We deliver professional learning in a classroom-based manner. Teachers transform into the students for the day and actively participate in each challenging task, while being taken on a journey along a developmental sequence of a critical concept.
Curriculum days available: We have four days available, all of which have been trialled and
refined based on over ten years of delivering these to our member schools across Australia:
-
Intensive full-day focus - Place Value developmental sequence
-
Intensive full-day focus - Additive thinking (Addition and Subtraction developmental sequence)
-
Intensive full-day focus - Multiplicative thinking (Multiplication and Division developmental sequence)
-
Intensive full-day focus - Fractions, Decimals and Percentages developmental sequence
During the first workshop at most of our member schools, we generally focus on our place value sequence (however, this can be altered to another focus if you prefer), progressing through each critical skill from the early years up to year 6. We can also focus on the early years exclusively if preferred, or years 3-6, based on school goals; however, generally, we recommend whole-staff participation (including learning support officers) as we brainstorm enabling/extending prompts throughout all sessions. This involves modelling and teams participating in our highest impact hands-on lessons for that concept. In the process, we explain and demonstrate strategies for modelling with materials, questioning and feedback tips, common misconceptions, as well as brainstorming enabling and extending prompts and strategies for ongoing extension and support within very mixed ability classrooms. The navigation of the planning packages, assessment options and links to the units are consistently highlighted throughout the day as well.
Included in the above photo gallery - Professional Learning Workshop delivered at the request of the Department of Education School Improvement Regional Team; whole-school and team-based PL workshops delivered in tropical north QLD, remote communities in WA, the NT and SA; inner Sydney and Perth; south eastern and northern Melbourne; as well as regional Victoria and NSW; in addition to many specialist education settings across Australia. Also features Maths Association of NSW 2022 Annual Conference.
Engaging, hands-on workshops: As demonstrated by the feedback above, our workshops are very dynamic, fast-paced, interactive and engaging for teachers, rather than lecture-style presentations. Teachers ask lots of questions and are shown practical tips to gain the most from the units and assessments to assist with the daily elements of hands-on maths planning based on students’ points-of-need. We can also adapt the workshop for your school’s numeracy goals.
Participant numbers: For smaller schools, we regularly deliver these workshops for 2-8 teachers, with schools often arranging for other small schools in the region to attend as a cluster (provided each school is a member of the Top Ten planning packs and has been part of the quote for the PL). For large schools, we can manage up to 150 participants at once (as a whole-school curriculum day), although some leaders prefer to release their teams over three days to work with us more intensively on each year level/stage's content in smaller groups. The smaller groups (early years, years 3-4, years 5-6) work extremely well for large campuses and our presenters believe these workshops are amongst our very best, as teachers are provided with a huge amount of practical support to trial in the classroom over the next term of learning.
Request a quote and check date availability
Please note: Due to high demand for dates throughout 2023 and 2024, professional learning workshops are currently exclusively available to Top Ten member schools
(campuses with access to the Early Years and Years 3-6 Planning Packages).
We are currently booked out for the first fortnight of term one 2024 and all of term two 2024.
Dates are still available for select dates during term one, and dates during terms 3 and 4 next year.
All our workshops are delivered by one of our co-founders who contributed to developing the packs for years in their own classrooms and as maths leaders of their schools.
Please fill in the form below to receive a quote for a whole-school curriculum day.
LESSONS IN ACTION IN OUR CLASSROOMS
We want every Australian student to love maths by using materials to both make sense of it and genuinely enjoy the sequential journey of learning it. We want to hear cheers at the start of maths sessions. We want to see materials (not worksheets and not click-technologies) in every primary classroom engaged in mathematics. We want to hear students reasoning with each other and thinking out loud (not silence) and see students recording their mathematical findings while using materials (rather than memorising rote-based rules). Ultimately, we aim to grow a generation of children who, as adults, will still love maths.
To achieve this, Top Ten was founded and is still owned entirely by Australian numeracy coaches and experienced primary teachers to support fellow teachers with the huge task of day-by-day planning for excellent maths lessons. We created, then tried and tested sequential hands-on units in Australian classrooms for ten years. Our units include photographs of classrooms in action during materials-based lessons, daily modelling by numeracy coaches and maths leaders, and student work samples for each open-ended task. Our aim is to ensure that primary teachers have enough time and energy to deliver engaging and high-impact maths lessons that target their students' points-of-need. To do this, we remove a significant portion of the burden of planning from scratch and the time-consuming search for engaging lessons that genuinely work in real classrooms. We grow each teacher's confidence and repertoire by making numeracy coaches' classroom modelling and coaching accessible to every teacher every day. This is achieved through illustrative photographs of lessons in action, student work samples and the ongoing practical professional learning provided through each unit plan.
Our goal is for every Australian student to fall in love with maths and become numerate, and to assist (in whichever way a team prefers to use our planning units and resources) every primary teacher to achieve this.
In total, there are 900 hands-on open-ended tasks, all organised into developmentally-sequenced units; over 500 materials-based lessons for the early years and 400 real-life lessons for years 3-6. To maximise your time, every lesson includes:
-
photographs of classroom modelling and student work samples
-
warm-up games and an engaging hook or tune-in element
-
a specific learning intention and lesson-specific maths vocabulary highlighted at the start of each lesson
-
success criteria within the formative assessment cross-checks linked to each unit
-
questioning and feedback tips, as well as misconception alerts
-
pre-planned enabling and extending prompts for ongoing in-class intervention and extension within every open-ended (low-floor high-ceiling) session.
Please visit our school feedback and student gain results page, and feel free to download the sample packs on our early years and numeracy library pages to share and try the sample lessons with your teams.
ABOUT US
Hands-on Numeracy
Planning Support Resources
NUMERACY LIBRARY
WITH LESSONS
Selectively-chosen numeracy picture book titles with over 150 linked lessons that are in addition to those in the early years and years 3-6 planning packs.
All titles are organised by year level and arrive packed into concepts (place value; addition; subtraction; multiplication; division; fractions; measurement and geometry; statistics and probability).
COMPREHENSIVE
EARLY YEARS PLANNING PACKAGE
Developmentally-sequenced, user-friendly
unit plans with detailed hands-on lessons for every critical skill throughout the early years. Diagnostic and formative assessments pinpoint points-of-need.
Lessons include enabling and extending prompts, engaging hooks, warm-ups, photographs of numeracy coaches modelling and student work samples.
CLASSROOM
MATHS TOOLBOXES