Sarndra Street

EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING

In her role as Mathematics Specialist teacher in the primary years at Matthew Flinders Anglican College (MFAC), Sarndra Street is deeply committed to inspiring a genuine love of Mathematics in each MFAC student, but specifically those she teaches in Years 3 to 6.

Maths can be a challenging and often daunting subject area for students. However, for the students in Sarndra’s class, that is never the case.

This was particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions which necessitated online learning. This was a period of time associated with learning losses for many students across Australia; however, thanks to Sarndra’s persistence and innovative practice, that was not the case for her students.

Feedback and personalised learning pedagogy is a signature of her practice, and she provided daily feedback to each of her students across four year levels during online learning. This helped her students to achieve and thrive in their Mathematics learning.

Sarndra understands the benefits of small-group learning, and online breakout rooms that reflected ordinary classroom practice, after whole-group online teaching, enabled collaborative learning and teacher feedback to guarantee ongoing learning and achievement for her students. This was not a practice specific to Sarndra’s class; she assisted her colleagues to do the same.

Recently equipped with a Master of Education qualification, Sarndra is committed to supporting her colleagues. Her extensive knowledge of highly effective and evidence-based mathematical pedagogy is actively shared and continually developed through ongoing professional development and self-initiated professional reading. Sarndra leads the development of Mathematics scope and sequence programs across the primary school, and collaborates with teaching teams weekly to assist with unit planning to ensure surface, deep and transfer of learning is achieved.

To continually inspire students, Sarndra engages the most enthusiastic in a range of extra-curricular events such as the “Choose Maths Competition”, where the Year 6 team last year achieved one of the top two positions nationally. Students enthusiastically run to her class, because “Maths with Mrs Street is fun, and you enjoy it as much as lunchtime play”.

The impact of Sarndra’s practice is widely felt. There has been a quantifiable improvement across the primary school with respect to students’ mental computation ability, NAPLAN results have also improved dramatically with respect to numeracy, and that’s just the start of Sarndra’s impact. In further endorsement of her practice, she has this year been successful in Stage 1 of the process for certification as a Lead teacher.

Congratulations Sarndra on being shortlisted for a TEACHX Excellence in Teaching Award.