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Read feedback from our valued member schools:
Results that speak for themselves - please see graphs below
The schools that work with us for two to three years through professional learning (curriculum days and intensive planning workshops based on our diagnostic, rigorous assessments) to deliver Top Ten units at a whole-school level with fidelity to the approach consistently top their regional, state and national results, particularly in student gains.
The journey of schools that stopped switching and fully committed to a research-based approach at a whole-school level with consistent professional learning support for teachers.
​1. Chirnside Park PS (most intensive professional learning school from 2021 to present)
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2024 NAPLAN results at Chirnside Park PS - All teams using the Early Years Pack for three years:
“When the change narrative is presented well and teachers are embedded in the change process with all resources required, look at the impact for students. Your passion and impact at our school has been immense. Thank you again for your incredible support at CPPS. You go above and beyond for our community and we see that and appreciate that. So proud of our staff and students.”
Mr Graham Elliott, Principal, Chirnside Park PS
“Thanks again for the continued support you provide our teams. The enthusiasm and passion you share has continued to support our aim in developing a rich and effective mathematics program.”
Mr David Penney, Assistant Principal, Chirnside Park PS
“Our students across the school love Maths because of Top Ten. It is extremely engaging and develops their conceptual understanding. The approach is evidence based, the PDs are incredible for teachers, and the support of the consultant is so valuable. Our results have lifted so much since committing.”
Natalie, Year 3/4 Teacher, Chirnside Park PS
"Thanks for delivering another informative and engaging planning session. I always learn so much!"
Mengdi, Year 3/4 Teacher, Chirnside Park PS
“You are always so supportive of how I plan. Thank you.”
Sharon, 5/6 Teacher, Chirnside Park PS
Identified in 2023 by the Department of Education as a standout school in terms of students achieving in the Top 2 Bands of Year 3 NAPLAN for 2022 - highlighted for achieving 'above area' and 'above region.' The Senior Education Improvement Leader of the Department requested the school present to the region and executive on their approach to numeracy. The Principal, Mr Graham Elliott, identified Top Ten Mathematics as the driver of these results.​
Prior to engaging Top Ten, Chirnside Park PS had been a self-proclaimed 'literacy strong school' with numeracy results lagging two bands below their equivalent results in numeracy.
Less than three years later, numeracy outcomes, student engagement and teacher capacity is at state-leading levels compared to like-schools.
Teams at Chirnside Park PS participate in an intensive planning workshop with a Top Ten numeracy coach every term. One of our numeracy coaches assists teams to analyse diagnostic data, based on students' points-of-need, then plan for the upcoming unit using our sequential menus of tasks.
The focus is on using the rigorous diagnostic assessments (not click-based, but strategy and reasoning focused) and unit plans, ongoing enabling and extending prompts, repeating lessons for mastery, explicit teaching using the fishbowl method, prioritising materials and mental strategies, as well as building teacher leadership in numeracy. Team leaders consistently assist and model for newer teachers to the school. ​
The 2024 NAPLAN data speaks for itself, after three years of intensive planning workshops with one of our numeracy coaches each term, and with each and every teacher across the school consistently using the diagnostic assessments and sequential unit plans.
2024 NAPLAN Year 5 results - Students that did not start at Foundation still showing significantly
above-region and above like-school performance in all comparisons:
2. Dandenong North PS (intensive professional learning school for 2020 and 2021)
Dandenong North PS topped the nation and the entire state for its student gain results in 2022. This followed whole-school implementation of Top Ten and four full-day professional learning sessions with our numeracy coaches throughout 2020 and 2021. The Age advertised this result heavily, which is still available here: The Age article.
Feedback from the Assistant Principal (now Principal) of Dandenong North PS:
​“Top Ten Maths has provided staff with an understanding of how to sequence the teaching of mathematical concepts, as well as providing tasks to teach students the given concept - a fantastic resource.” Mr Paul Hilton, Principal, Dandenong North PS
3. Kinglake PS (intensive professional learning school from 2016 to 2018)
Kinglake PS was looking for support with numeracy, with below-region outcomes and growth at the time. Their maths leader contacted Top Ten for an initial professional learning day. Teams then requested multiple curriculum days and planning workshops over the course of two years.
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Consistently, Kinglake PS outperformed its like-schools and regional results, so much so that numeracy has become an enrolment focus for families, and the school ran a mini mathematicians program based on Top Ten for preschool-aged children and families in the area.
Within two years of implementing Top Ten, leaders and teachers noted the incredibly consistent results and student engagement from P-6, which were reflected in NAPLAN as Kinglake progressed to second out of all-like schools in Australia (as shown in the first graph above). Kinglake started below region and ended significantly above region.
See the full case study in our list of initial pilot schools (scroll below).
4. Thomastown East PS (intensive professional learning school for 2016 to 2019)
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Thomastown East's maths leaders were tasked by their principal with researching all Australian-based approaches to numeracy and choosing the most evidence-based to implement school-wide. Both leaders decided on Top Ten Mathematics, and the data two years later confirms their choice:
TEPS was showcased by the Department of Education during Literacy and Numeracy Week while implementing Top Ten across all teams. This video can be viewed on the homepage of the Thomastown East PS website (https://thomastown-east-ps.vic.edu.au/), which includes Top Ten tasks being delivered by teachers and teachers discussing our approach.
A year later, the Department contracted Top Ten and awarded us a contract, larger than the Maths Association received for the same tender, to produce learning materials for the Department's numeracy team, specifically relating to explicit modelling and hands-on numeracy.
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Each team at Thomastown East PS had an intensive planning workshop with a Top Ten numeracy coach every term for three years to fully embed the pedagogy and practice in classrooms. Teams use the diagnostic assessments to track gaps and next points-of-need (ZPD) at a deeper level than click-assessments.
“Students at our school are experiencing success with Maths every day. This program has
revolutionised the way in which our students feel about Maths. It has led to astoundingly improved student engagement and comprehensive progress in student outcomes. The pre and post testing component is invaluable, in that it continually directs teaching towards targeting specific goals that are achievable for each student. All lessons utilise peer teaching and practice, and zero in on the language of Maths which is crucial for students to attain a real, deep and rich understanding of the concepts being taught.” Ms Rebecca Szeremeta, Numeracy Learning Specialist, Thomastown East PS
See the full case study in our list of initial pilot schools (scroll below).
​5. Lyndale Greens PS (intensive professional learning school from 2016 to 2018) ​
Schools in challenging regions can still achieve outlier results in student gains with a research-based approach, as Lyndale Green's teams showed using Top Ten's assessments and unit plans, working with one of our numeracy coaches consistently for three years:
Department of Education requested the comparison to region result be removed, because it would potentially lead to excess enrolments at this school, compared to non-Top Ten schools in the same region.
Lyndale Greens PS chose Top Ten to assist teams to transition away from worksheets to a more research-based, hands-on, differentiated approach to numeracy. Top Ten numeracy coaches taught in classrooms two days per week, as well as working with all teams intensively for planning based on the diagnostic assessments and sequential unit plans.
Within two years, Lyndale's results skyrocketed, so much so that the hardworking teams skipped the staff meeting and held a high tea party when the results were released!97.5% of students achieved strong growth. That means only 2.5% of students were making below average growth - when the Australian all-schools average was 25% (10 times higher, in the way NAPLAN was calculated at the time)! This is in the context of a challenging region - a region where the growth should be harder to achieve. A research-based approach focused on engaging, explicit, hands-on numeracy works in any region, as these results demonstrate.
See the full case study in our list of initial pilot schools (scroll below).
Student gain and like-school comparison results from our three
initial intensive pilot schools in
low ICSEA regions
Pre-COVID (2016 - 2019)
2020 onwards
Further case studies of Top Ten schools that have had professional learning workshops and a whole-school focus
Research-Basis of the Approach
Our unit plans have been developed for over ten years in Australian classrooms by numeracy coaches.
While the units are based on Singapore's concrete-pictorial-abstract approach to Mathematics, as well as the Japanese lesson study model of continual refinement, there are key Australian-based texts and experts that have also informed the underlying research-basis and pedagogy of the units, as well as what constitutes evidence-based practice.
The critical research that has and continues to influence the overarching pedagogy that underpins the assessments and sequential unit plans includes:
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Ongoing research project and collaboration with our partner school in Singapore (Westwood Primary School), including in-person classroom observations by our numeracy coaches and collaboration with school campus leadership teams across Singapore's schools. Our coaches carry out this research in-person (not remotely) to deeply understand the pedagogy and daily practices of the world's leading country in Mathematics outcomes.
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The Big Ideas of Mathematics, particularly the research and titles published by Professor Dianne Siemon, most notably Teaching Mathematics: Foundations to Middle Years (2011). The same research also recently formed a significant part of the basis for the new Australian Curriculum Version 9 and Victorian Curriculum Version 2.0.
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Mindset Mathematics series research by the founder of YouCubed, Professor Jo Boaler.
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Making Number Talks Matter (2015) by Cathy Humphreys and Ruth Parker.
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In-classroom modelling sessions delivered by Michael Ymer, who trained many of our current coaches in-person as part of their roles as numeracy leaders of their own schools.
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Engaging Maths series by Professors Doug Clarke, Anne Roche and Matthew Sexton.
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A vision for mathematical expertise and excellence (2020) by Dr Christine Mae, numeracy consultant for Catholic Education across NSW, particularly with the focus on rich, cognitively challenging tasks, as well as the fishbowl and gallery walk lesson structures.
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Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics (2020) by Professor Peter Liljedahl. Professor Liljedahl was recently invited by the AAMT (Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers) to train 60 numercy leaders in Canberra, and one of our numeracy coaches completed this exclusive intensive training course.
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The published works of the Erickson Institute Early Math Collaborative in Chicago.
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NZ Mathematics by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, including the Ambitious Mathematics series, which showcases classroom examples of a contextually-relevant hook or launch story to maximise student engagement and the mathematical meaningfulness of every session.
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First Steps Mathematics by the Western Australian Department of Education, developed with the goal of all teachers having access to high-quality, contextually-relevant, supportive planning tools. ​
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It should be noted that the professors and authors mentioned above did not develop the resources, but rather it is that their published works and research helped inform what constitutes evidence-based practice.
All units were developed in Australian by numeracy coaches working in collaboration with experienced teachers in classrooms. ​
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intensive schools
gains at pilot schools
research basis
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