The first year of National Standards in New Zealand primary schools has begun and the government continues to remain 'staunch' on its election promise, despite the many concerns raised by various educational experts, the NZEI (Primary teachers union) and NZPF (NZ Principals Federation).
Muritai staff are curious to investigate and improve our understanding about the standards so we can make the best of the 'situation' for our students. So on Monday our teaching staff attended a presentation that looked more closely at the rationale behind the standards, arguments 'for' and 'against' and touched on the possible impact these may have on our current assessment and reporting procedures. It also provided the opportunity for teachers to dissect the ‘reading’ standard for their classroom level and talk openly about their thoughts, opinions and ideas for moving forward. When teams shared back from their own discussions it was interesting to note that many more questions were raised. Although the standards seem very simple in theory there is the potential for them to be counter productive. Our staff don’t want the standards to become so obtrusive and narrowly defined that they detract us from the very thing we are trying to achieve - students learning and being the best that they can be'.
If you are interested in finding out more about the National Standards I recommend you visit the following website by clicking on the link: http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards
1 comment:
All you have to do this year is let parents know how their kids are in comparison to these standards. Why bother doing more work so you can make a political promise work. Is testing is the answer to underachievement? You dont actually have to do anything different. Concentrate on improving individuals like you always have been doing. Remember no matter how well you do, other schools will be cheating and sandbagging results to look better, that is a promise, and the day those people are being held up as "top schools" "top teachers" is the day you wished you hadn't bothered and got on with creativity. I dont ever want to be a part of a school who kills creativity. Tread carefully and dont be swayed too much by the smoke screen being sold to you by those fancy websites and the smarmy nat standards providers.
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