A small Masterton school is swimming against a nationwide tide of opposition to the national standards policy.
Debate over the policy, which has sparked an Auckland Primary Principals' Association call for teachers to boycott national standards training, is expected to come to a head at a principals' conference in Queenstown this
week.
Solway Primary School in southern Masterton this week begins the release of pupil Achievement Books that have at the end of each term over the past eight years mirrored the ethos of national standards, according to Solway School principal Gail Marshall.
The ''one stop'' assessment system involves teachers, parents and children and has made the change to national standards ''relatively easy for us''.
''We are probably the only school in Masterton that agrees with national standards. We have worked hard this year to be ready to implement these this month and they are to be released home to parents from today,'' Ms Marshall said. ''Our teachers have used the standards to add to our very clear and supportive assessment system that our parents have now enjoyed for over eight years. ''We have trained our teachers, we have held parent meetings to explain how it will work and listened to what they wanted to see reported and we have worked in teams to arrive at the successful format we now have.'' Ms Marshall supports national standards and the alignment through to NCEA Level Two, the minimum qualification for a modern apprenticeship.
She supports the introduction of a ''standard pre-entry'' to primary school ''so we can have a base to work from''. ''All any parent wants to know is; how my child is doing at school, and how well is he or she doing relative to others in the school and others in the country. That simple. ''We can now show them this and we can also show them what we all need to do to help their child reach the standard. Schools should be about delivering better educational outcomes for all children, '' Ms Marshall said.
