Back to school for a new era

Marilyn Gwilliam, president of the Auckland Primary Principals' Association, said assessment would start during the first term as usual. Photo / Supplied

Today marks the beginning of the school year and the start of National Standards, but it should be business as usual for children heading to class.

This year schools begin working within the new National Standards which require teachers to report to parents at least twice a year on their child's progress and achievement.

Anne Jackson, the Ministry of Education's deputy secretary of schooling, said the standards would mean students had a clearer understanding of what they needed to do and how schools and parents could help, but it was unlikely children would experience any major changes to their day.

"Teaching will continue to be based on the rich and broad learning described in the New Zealand curriculum," said Ms Jackson.

The ministry was providing extensive professional development to help teachers understand and work with the standards, she said.

Marilyn Gwilliam, president of the Auckland Primary Principals' Association, said assessment would start during the first term as usual, but teachers still needed to learn how to moderate the results against the standards.

The first thing schools needed to do was begin training for the standards, but she was unsure when this would happen.

"They know how to do the assessments, but not the reporting," said Mrs Gwilliam.

She said no one was enthusiastic about National Standards and there were other things to worry about.

"We have a very rich, new curriculum starting that will be the focus."

Ms Jackson said teachers would now teach English and maths across all subjects, and the National Standards aimed to improve these skills across all subjects.

Teachers would have to make a judgment about the progress of their students and report this to parents.

"In many ways this is 'business-as-usual' for schools," she said.

"For some schools little will change. Other schools may need to change their reporting quite substantially in order to meet their parents' needs."

Mrs Gwilliam said children hoped the new standards would not change how children were being taught.

"We don't want it [National Standards] to drive what's happening at school."

As well as reporting to parents, school boards will have to prepare literacy and numeracy targets against the standards in their 2011 charters.

Ms Jackson said each school would choose how, and how often, it assessed students.

Parents can expect to see the first reports on their children's progress from the middle of the year.

STANDARDISING

Last year

* National standards set for years 1 to 8 in reading, writing and maths.

This year

Schools:

* Required to use them.
* Required to report to parents about whether their child meets them.
* To develop 2011 charters to include targets set against national data.

Next year

* Reporting to parents continues.

2012

* Schools send information to Ministry of Education on national standards data collected.