Charter schools return, curriculum changes for students in 2025 - The Front Page

Primary school students will be taught structured literacy and maths this year as part of a curriculum refresh.

Students nationwide are starting to head back to school and big changes are coming for our youngest pupils.

As 2025 marks the return of charter schools, primary school students will be taught structured literacy and maths this year as part of a curriculum refresh instituted by Education Minister Erica Stanford.

The new curricula are designed for primary and intermediate school children between years 0 to 8; the maths overhaul will include twice-yearly tests to ensure students meet expected standards.

Newstalk ZB education reporter Shannon Johnstone told The Front Page it’s based on a “science of learning” approach to teaching.

“It’s a systemic way of teaching kids to read. It includes things like phonics checks – teaching how sounds and letters match.

“When the Government announced the structured literacy changes, Education Minister Erica Stanford pointed to data showing 56% of Year 8 students were at the expected level for reading and only 35% were at the expected level for writing.

Johnstone added: “2022 Pisa results found that 21% of 15-year-olds were at the lowest reading level. And at the same time, we’ve also seen falling rates of NCEA achievement.”

There has been some controversy about how changes to the maths curriculum will go forward as planned.

“Last year, the Prime Minister described a total system failure in teaching maths. He said that based on the 2023 results of the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study, that showed only 22% of students are working at or above the expected level in Year 8.

“So, Aotearoa Educators Collective criticised the Government. They said those results were questionable and contradicted previous national and international studies. They say it wasn’t reflective of a drastic drop in achievement, but instead of a change in the benchmarking that was being used,” she said.

The other big change coming this year is the highly anticipated return of charter schools.

“This is obviously quite a big change to education. We’ve got seven openings this term. Two are in Christchurch, four in Auckland, and one is in the Far North.

“There are a range of schools that are opening. So Tipene, which is the old St Stephen’s Māori boarding school, is targeting mainly Māori and Pacific boys. There’s also a Māori immersion school opening and two Australian-owned schools that already have campuses over in Oz.

“There’s a creative arts college, a French school, and also some schools targeting disengaged youth.

“Associate Education Minister David Seymour tells me they’re going to continue assessing the 78 applications that they received throughout this year. He reckons we could see more charter schools opening mid-year,” she said.

Then there are state school conversions. Budget 2024 allowed for 35 state school conversions this year and next year, and Seymour told Johnstone there is a lot of interest.

“Last week when I spoke to him, he told me that they had had two conversations with state schools just that week, and he reckons that we could see some open next year,” she said.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about changes to schools, including a new lunch menu and how schools are tackling the cellphone ban.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

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