Creating Spaces: Opening up thinking and questioning about learning using a system’s early numeracy strategy

Introduction Schools have seen significant reforms that have been linked to school improvement and effectiveness. These reforms have led to a situation where teachers have been the focus of school improvement. Systemic measures, such as strategic management, whole cohort testing and target setting have been developed to ensure that necessary reforms occur to improve student’s learning. What is interesting is that the “improved student learning” is often only seen to be important in some areas of the curriculum. The result of this has seen a separation of curriculum into what some call “core” or “key” curriculum. This is predominantly literacy and numeracy.