Principals welcome support

The Government's new approach to improving achievement in schools by providing direct and focused Ministry of Education support has been welcomed by Otago's primary and secondary principals.

Education Minister Anne Tolley announced this week there would be three core elements to the new approach.

Expert practitioners from the ministry and the education sector would be appointed to work closely with schools and give specially designed support to meet the specific needs of their pupils and teachers.

They would use pupil data to assess where support would be most effective, and make sure schools got help much earlier.

The $36 million announced for National Standards in the 2009 Budget would go towards new intervention programmes being developed for pupils who needed extra support in reading, writing and maths, over and above good classroom teaching.

The Ministry of Education had also been asked to redesign its approach to professional development for principals and teachers.

The Government invested $86 million a year in this area, and needed to ensure it helped schools lift pupil achievement, Mrs Tolley said.

Both Otago Secondary Principals' Association president Julie Anderson and Otago Primary Principals' Association chairwoman Jenny Clarke welcomed the initiatives.

Mrs Anderson said more emphasis on ministry staff and experts working with teachers in classrooms and resources directed to "on the ground" work in schools to support improving pupil achievement were a very positive step.

"It is pleasing to see the minister is now giving specific examples of interventions - like the ability to access specialist literacy teachers, and more numeracy resources to support students' conceptual learning in mathematics."

She hoped new, more generic literacy and numeracy standards at NCEA level 1, which would be implemented in 2011, would help motivate all pupils to achieve.

"Students will be able to gain literacy and numeracy credits from a range of subjects, but it remains to be seen how well these new standards will work for the students."

Mrs Clarke hoped Mrs Tolley had considered the impact of redirecting 50 specialists from their present work.

"If these come from schools where they are making a big difference for children, there need to be suitable high-calibre teachers immediately available to replace them and continue the quality learning programmes that influence student learning."

- john.lewis@odt.co.nz