Engaging students and driving great learning outcomes demands creativity and talent at the best of times but it is even more challenging when students spend weeks at home in COVID-19 lockdown. 
For Stage 3 (year 5/6) teacher Elizabeth Killick and the team at Heritage Christian School, in Port Macquarie NSW, ORIGO Education’s Stepping Stones was the perfect solution.
The team created a series of videos, built around the ORIGO Education toolkit, to successfully transition from maths in the classroom to dynamic lessons online.
“ORIGO’s Stepping Stones is a great program. We’ve been using it since 2016 and found it really helpful, particularly during lockdown,” said Elizabeth.
“We produced our own maths video for every lesson and were able to talk through the work as the students followed along at home using the notes and exercises in their journals.
“For young students it was a great way to really engage and get the parents involved too.
“ORIGO also provided home learning which was a useful extension for students who wanted to do extra.
“It was a lot of work making the videos but now we have a valuable library of resources so we can swing into online mode whenever we need to. It is helpful for students who are away, or sick, and need to catch up on work they have missed.”
Elizabeth has been teaching at Heritage for the past nine years since returning to work after having her own family. At the time, the outcomes-based curriculum was new and Heritage was chosen to participate in a Literacy and Numeracy Action Plan designed to improve student outcomes which involved evaluating a host of evidence-based learning programs.
The school adopted ORIGO Education’s Stepping Stones and has used it ever since.
“Stepping Stones is great because it gives you the confidence that you are covering all the different maths strands in a precise and logical way. That is particularly important when you have new teachers just starting out,” she said.
“Every teacher can access materials intended for other year groups and the approach is familiar and consistent across the school which is useful when you have students in your class who have missed earlier concepts or need extra help.
“The program comes with very clear explanations and having all the material up on the screen is really helpful. It makes it very convenient if you have to leave instructions for a relief teacher.
“ORIGO is a very easy program to use and we definitely recommend it because the content is appropriate for our students and we know we are covering all the outcomes.”
To find out more about Stepping Stones, CLICK HERE.