Labour’s plan for lifting children’s achievement in schools
new-zealand-labour-party
Wed Sep 14 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Labour’s plan for lifting children’s achievement in schools
Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 4:06 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party
Sue Moroney
Education spokesperson
14 September 2011
Labour’s plan for lifting children’s achievement in schools
Labour today announced its plan to lift children’s education achievement in our primary schools.
Education spokesperson Sue Moroney said that under Labour every child will have the opportunity to achieve to their full potential, supported by a strong partnership between parents, school, neighbours and the wider community.
“Labour will lift achievement by setting high expectations for each student according to their individual ability and providing parents with information they want in plain language about their child’s learning.
Labour will require schools to use recognised assessment tools and teacher judgement to:
1. Determine the New Zealand Curriculum level a child is achieving.
2. Show a child’s rate of progress between reports over the course of a year.
3. Identify children not achieving within the curriculum level appropriate to their year at school.
4. Decide and report the next learning steps.
5. Report this information in plain language to parents at least twice a year.
“These five key points are what parents say they want from their children’s schools,” Sue Moroney said.
“Under Labour’s plan they will get clear and regular feedback on their children’s progress against the New Zealand curriculum and be able to see what steps are being taken to lift achievement levels.
“Parents will be able to gain this valuable information without their school being forced to adopt a distracting „one-size fits all. approach, which is splitting school communities.
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“Under Labour, schools will not be required to implement National’s standards.
“These so-called standards are based on systems imported from England, the US and Australia, and ignore the fact that New Zealand already ranks above these countries in education performance.
“They are not moderated, they differ from school to school, and are therefore neither national nor standard.
“This has been a huge distraction for schools and parents which has to stop.
“John Key and Anne Tolley have put politics ahead of everything else. It’s time to put children first again rather than fighting about how we do that.
“Labour will give schools a choice. We believe that lifting education achievements is best left to the experts in partnership with parents, and our plan allows that to happen.
“But for any school community that genuinely supports „national standards. and believes it provides the best way to get results for their students we will not bully them into submission.
“It is time to take politics out of primary schools and support them to do what they do best – educating our kids to a standard envied by countries around the world,” Sue Moroney said.
ENDS
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