Using Mathematics to Forge Connections Between Home and School

This chapter reports on two initiatives that focused on improving parental understanding of contemporary mathematical practices as enacted in their child’s school and classroom. The first initiative entitled Engaging Families in Numeracy, commenced in 2009, and involved students from a variety of classes, in two different schools. The project was aimed at engaging parents in numeracy-related activities with their child at home on a regular, ongoing basis. Parents were initially surveyed in order to determine their knowledge and perceptions of how their child was taught numeracy and then invited to provide regular feedback on the activities their child engaged in at home. While parents were generally supportive of the programme, it was felt that there was still a lot of uncertainty about what actually happened in mathematics lessons at school. To address this, a second initiative, the ‘Maths Club’ was developed, whereby parent workshops were conducted by the author with a focus on familiarising parents with the mathematics curriculum, developing their own mathematical content knowledge, and providing them with opportunities to participate in classroom observation sessions.