As part of a curriculum refresh, primary schools introduced new English and maths curriculums last year, and consultation on six other subjects including science, the arts and social sciences closed at the end of April.
Many teachers have been worried about the speed at which this was going through.
Lee Stream teaching principal Kate Martin spends most of her day in the classroom with her pupils, but as the principal she is also in charge of setting the curriculum, and all the administration associated with the job.
‘‘I have found it quite tricky being the principal with all these changes coming through.’’
Despite the challenges she was determined to ‘‘make learning magic for children no matter what’’.
‘‘We’ll get creative and we’ll make it work ... we’ll do a rock-star job.
‘‘I am positive about it, you know. We’ll all make the best of it — we’ll make sure the kids are going to have the best they can have.’’
However, she still had reservations about how quickly the new proposed curriculum was being rolled out.
‘‘There’s a lot of changes happening in a really short period of time, which is challenging for all schools ... it doesn’t matter if you’re a teaching principal or a principal of 50 classrooms.’’
Ms Martin said she was lucky structured literacy and maths, and the science of learning, had been implemented at the school for a long time, which incorporated a lot the proposed curriculum would be including.
This did not lessen the stress of how quickly everything was changing.
‘‘One of the big things ... has been the shifting of expectations for students.
‘‘I’ve tried to explain it to my parents that our goal posts have shifted, so your child hasn’t gone backwards, but the expectations have changed on them, which is really hard ... we’ve now moved those goal posts much further down the field.’’
Ministry of Education acting general manager of the curriculum centre Antony Harvey said it recognised the pace of change, but that reflected a strong focus on lifting student achievement.
‘‘Schools are not expected to have everything in place from day one in 2027. The curriculum is designed to be introduced in stages, so schools can plan and make changes over time in a way that works for their students.’’
He said there was ‘‘flexibility’’ for schools to prioritise what mattered most for their pupils, rather than trying to do everything at once.
The implementation timeline for primary-school-aged pupils had already been extended to give schools more time to prepare and adjust.
‘‘Overall, the focus is on giving schools the support, time and flexibility to introduce the new curriculum in a way that is manageable for teachers and works for their students.’’
