SOL Education Consultants

We were fortunate to hear Dr Carl Hendrick speak in Melbourne today.

There were so many standout moments, but one quote that really resonated with us was:

“Explicit Instruction is a kindness. It’s about making information clear for novices.”

Such a simple but powerful reminder that when students are learning something new, clarity matters. Making learning accessible isn’t about lowering expectations—it’s about giving every student the best chance to succeed.

Talking maths and learning is one of our favourite ways to spend the day! We loved working with the team at Hallett Cove East Primary School and supporting their work to strengthen fact fluency across the school.

Looking forward to continuing the journey together this year!

📕 Student Free Day 📕

Today our staff engaged with professional learning on the importance of fact fluency in mathematics. Liana McCurry and Leah Draper from SOL Education (science of learning) lead our professional development. We look forward to continuing our journey with SOL education throughout the year.

Connecting the Dots – Final Call

Booklets are finalised.
Resources are at the printers.
Ready to strengthen acquisition, build fluency, and support transfer in maths.

Registrations close Friday afternoon.
Secure your place!

See the first comment for registration links.

Love this stage of the work.

After collecting Fact Fluency data, this is where the real teaching happens - going back to C in CRA (Concrete–Representational–Abstract) and building the concepts that sit underneath the scores.

Manipulatives, structured tasks, and rich teacher talk to help students see, reason about and understand the maths - not just recall it.

Fluency isn’t just about speed. It’s about strong mental models that make the facts make sense.

Leah Myers Consulting - LMC articulates this so well. This strongly aligns with our work at SOL.

Strong, explicit classroom instruction is the most powerful equity lever we have.

“When students struggle, the solution isn't simplified work; it's stronger foundations.” ~ Dr Carl Hendrick ~

This really resonated with us from Carl Hendrick’s Substack article '10 Rules for Designing Effective Learning'.

So often our instinct is to make the task easier, when what students actually need is explicit teaching of the missing building blocks.

Find the gap, teach it well - and the original task becomes possible.

This is exactly what we’re about.

Connecting the Dots 🔵🟡🟣

We’ve been having lots of conversations with schools about foundational skills in maths - especially how early number concepts set students up (or hold them back) in later years.

Connecting the Dots is all about making those learning progressions visible, so teachers can see how key ideas connect from Foundation through to Upper Primary, and plan instruction more intentionally.

This term we’re running three face-to-face versions of the same session, tailored for Junior, Middle and Upper Primary contexts.

We would love to see you there.

https://www.sol-education.net/workshops

If students have to think hard to recall a fact, it isn’t fluent.

One of the most common things we heard in schools last year was:
“My students just don’t know their facts.”

And that’s why fact fluency became such a big focus for us in 2025.
It was the most obvious place to start.

But fact fluency is not about speed drills or pressure.

True fluency means students can recall efficiently, apply flexibly, and think without effort. When facts live in long-term memory, students have the cognitive space to reason, solve problems, and make connections.

Random practice creates fragile learning.
Small, intentional fact sets, daily review, and cumulative practice build lasting fluency.

This is why fluency is a foundation - not an endpoint.

Without fluency, everything else becomes harder.

✨Join Us for CONNECTING THE DOTS Maths PD✨

We are so excited to launch Connecting the Dots, a brand-new workshop series designed to build teacher confidence in teaching key mathematical concepts and understanding how they connect across the primary years.

Across the three workshops, we will explore:
🔹 Using the Instructional Hierarchy to sequence and teach key mathematical concepts
🔹 Applying the Concrete–Representational–Abstract approach with hands-on activities
🔹 Understanding how concepts connect to form a coherent learning progression
🔹 Identifying where each concept fits within the South Australian Curriculum / AC v9

📍 Venue: Education Development Centre, 4 Milner Street, Hindmarsh
💲 Price: $180 (includes GST) – morning tea & lunch provided
📧 [email protected]

Workshop Options & Bookings:

🟦 Junior Primary (F–2)
Gateway Skills, Place Value, Addition & Subtraction, Fractions
📅 Tuesday 24/02/2026
⏰ 8:30am–4:00pm
🎟️ Book here: https://www.trybooking.com/1511211

🟩 Middle Primary (Years 3–4)
Place Value (inc. decimals), Addition & Subtraction, Multiplication & Division, Fractions
📅 Wednesday 25/02/2026
⏰ 8:30am–4:00pm
🎟️ Book here: https://www.trybooking.com/1511231

🟧 Upper Primary (Years 5–6)
Place Value – Decimals, Multiplication & Division, Fractions, Perimeter & Area
📅 Thursday 26/02/2026
⏰ 8:30am–4:00pm
🎟️ Book here: https://www.trybooking.com/1511234

Limited spaces available for each session.
We can’t wait to support teachers in building strong mathematical foundations for all learners.

Please share with colleagues who may be interested! 💛📘