Secondary School parent support

Welcome to our Secondary School parent support page!

Helping your kids to do maths at home can be a positive experience! Maths is taught and learned differently by kids these days. It is about understanding the reasoning and using strategies to do maths. Focus on thinking and having a go, not about right or wrong!

These page provide information and resources to help you support your children at home, to increase their interest and engagement in maths. If you need something else that may help contact us at office@mav.vic.edu.au

Hints and tips for supporting kids at home
Maths and ATAR. Top 4 tips for students and parents. Find out more about why selecting maths at VCE can support a good ATAR, but also prepare students for success beyond school.
Maths at home. Top 5 tips for parents of lower secondary students Concerned about how you support your children at home with maths? Make it a positive experience.
Maths is all around you. Top 5 tips for parents Find out more about how you can support your children to explore maths around you at home, and while doing daily activties.
7 WAYS PARENTS CAN HELP THEIR KIDS WITH MATHS: From one meddling, maths-mad mother to another An article by Danijela Draskovic, MAV Edcuation Consultant: "Now you don’t need to be ‘good at maths’ yourself to foster mathematical thinking in your children. In fact, you don’t even need to have any of the answers. Parents need to just recognise opportunities for mathematical exploration and need to practice asking good questions. It is up to the child to discover the answers."
Helping your kids learn maths at home doesn't have to be daunting Article in The Age, May 2020. Read more here.	Read article

Games, activities and other resources
Our MAVshop also has a number of other products for parents, including games and puzzle books for students. You can check out the parent catalogue here, and all products can be purchased in our MAVshop.
VCE Students revison tip sheets!
VCE maths revision: Top 6 Tips for Students. Need study tips for VCE maths success? Making ongoing summaries, joining revision programs, and showing all working step-by-step are all part of what leads to success. Find out more.
Good study habits: 5 tips for students. Good study habits lead to sucess, if you need a few ideas on how to get set-up and prepared for study, check out our tip sheet now.
Which maths subject should I take in years 11 and 12? Here's what you need to know. This great article in 'The Conversation' will help you understand your maths subject choices. It is written by Dr Carly Sawatski and Dr Jill Brown from Deakin University. Choosing your senior school subjects doesn't have to be scary. Here are 6 things to keep in mind. Another really helpful article by Professor Nan Bahr from Southern Cross University. Bust some myths to help you make good subject selections.

VCE Revision Program for students

MAV runs a VCE program for Unit 3&4 Maths Methods, Further Maths and Specialist Maths. These include self-paced, interactive online courses.

All course videos are delivered by highly qualified, experienced teachers who are current VCAA exam assessors. This means that the information the students receive will be the most relevant and up-to-date, and the tips will be based on where students typically make mistakes in their VCE exams. Furthermore, technology videos will be created by TI and CASIO experts.

Visit this page for more information.

"The speakers seemed really experienced, and helped us feel much more confident about our approach to the exam. I felt it was really beneficial hearing from examiners, as they provided insight into the exam that we are not able to get from teachers at school. I would highly recommend the revision lectures to all VCE students - whether you use it as revision of content, or even just to get helpful exam tips!"

For more information on the VCE Revision Program contact Danijela Draskovic.

Ideas and activities

Numeracy at home, Department of Education and Training

Information, advice and activities for families to help their child's numeracy learning at home.

http://numeracyguidedet.global2.vic.edu.au/numeracy-at-home/

How to learn maths: For students (secondary), YouCubed, Stanford Universtiy

How to Learn Math is a free self-paced class for learners of all levels of mathematics. It combines really important information on the brain and learning with new evidence on the best ways to approach and learn math effectively. Many people have had negative experiences with math, and end up disliking math or failing. This class will give learners of math the information they need to become powerful math learners, it will correct any misconceptions they have about what math is, and it will teach them about their own potential to succeed and the strategies needed to approach math effectively.

https://www.edx.org/course/how-to-learn-math-for-students-2

Apps
	Infinite Voyage Activities level up to year 10 standard. Infinite Voyage takes place on a spaceship that is searching for suitable places where humankind can relocate. To keep the spaceship running, there are a variety of maths based challenges and games to complete.
	The Dance of Geometry This app contains a number of geometric challenges, for example finding a side length or an area which is part of a composite shape. It is presented as a game, with varying levels of difficulty.