The Smith Family have been working with Australian families and children facing disadvantage for over half a century – so they certainly know that inequality takes many forms. For many young people educational disadvantage begins even before the earliest years of formal schooling and thus, from the get-go, their disengagement with school presents a high and persistent barrier to academic achievement and success.
Children from disadvantaged backgrounds generally as a group start behind so on the very first day at school they’re behind their more affluent peers… that gap continues, continues through primary school and secondary school and then what they do when they leave school.”
– Julie McLeod, The Smith Family
In a conversation with Julie McLeod from the University of Melbourne’s Social Equity Institute (link given below), Anne Hampshire, Head of The Smith Family’s Research and Advocacy, discusses the inequities of early childhood education and how the ‘Let’s Count’ program is trying to overcome them.
It is not about sitting down and doing algebra or a highly complex geometry exercise, it is helping children to notice, explore and talk about maths in the everyday, in these early years. This will help them develop skills in mathematics, but really importantly the dispositions, the attitudes to mathematics which will set them up for going forward.”
– Julie McLeod, The Smith Family
To discover more about The Smith Family and their exciting ‘Let’s Count’ Program, click here.
