Sunday 26 January 2014

23-27 January 2014

PM announces $359m education investment

John Key | Education
Prime Minister John Key today announced the National-led Government will invest an extra $359 million over the next four years to lift the achievement of New Zealand students at school. In his first speech of the year, Mr Key says the country is moving in the right direction, with the economy projected to grow faster than most other developed countries and incomes set to rise. “The Government’s books are on track to return to surplus and we are continuing to deliver what we have promised,” Mr Key says. ...

$359m for teaching & leadership career pathways

Hekia Parata | Education
The Government’s $359 million investment in education over the next four years will support teachers and principals to lift student performance in every school, Education Minister Hekia Parata says. The investment will create four new teaching and leadership roles in schools - Executive Principals, Expert Teachers, Lead Teachers, and Change Principals - and was announced today by Prime Minister John Key in his first speech of the year. “These changes are the next step in our plan to raise student achievement in our schools,” Ms Parata says. ...

Education profession input sought for $359m investment

Hekia Parata | Education
Education Minister Hekia Parata says the wider education profession will play a key role in further developing details of the $359m education investment initiative announced by the Prime Minister yesterday. “The initiative, which proposes to introduce four new roles in our schools, will further help to recognise highly-capable teachers and principals, keep good teachers in the classroom, and share expertise across schools,” Ms Parata says. ... 

Greens fail to do their homework on education

Hekia Parata | Education
Education Minister Hekia Parata says the Green Party appeared to be completely unaware of what happens every day in schools up and down the country when it wrote its latest policy ideas. “We already have around 300 nurses working with virtually every school in the country and with a particular focus on low decile-schools. “We already provide social workers for every decile 1 to 3 primary school in the country, under the Social Workers in Schools scheme. ...

PM’s Youth Programme making positive changes in lives of young people

Nikki Kaye | Youth Affairs
Youth Affairs Minister Nikki Kaye joined Prime Minister John Key at a dinner last night to celebrate young participants of the 2014 Prime Minister’s Youth Programme. The annual programme, which is now in its fifth year, involves up to 100 young people aged 14 - 17 years in Auckland. They have been recognised for facing and managing challenges and taking positive steps in their lives, such as improving their academic performance, or moving away from behaviour like truancy and low-level offending. ...

Use of National Standards to select "top teachers"

Scoop.co.nz (press release)
NZEI Te Riu Roa President Judith Nowotarski said National Standards data remained invalid and unreliable. An NZCER survey published last November found only 7 percent of principals thought they were robust. “National Standards outcomes do not show ...

Nats plan financial lures to turn around struggling schools

Stuff.co.nz
National has targeted education through the introduction of national standards, by rolling out ultrafast broadband to schools and through projects including its $10.5 million programme to boost maths and science teaching. But those initiatives have ...

Teacher super roles the death knell of good primary schools

Scoop.co.nz (press release)
This is because of the small size and organisation of primary schools and because these schools will now face greater pressure to embrace unwanted and damaging reforms in this area such as the National Standards. There are to be four new roles.

Education overhaul targets top teachers

The Nelson Mail
Education could not be seen in isolation from issues of poverty, the cost of living and the variation in standard creeping in because of national standards and charter schools, he said. Of National's plan, he said: "This is probably good in so far as ...

Education plan should invigorate teaching – think tank

3News NZ
NZ Initiative research fellow Rose Patterson says it should invigorate the profession. "Schools ... Canterbury University college of education pro-vice chancellor Gail Gillon said the plans were a step in the right direction to improving education at ...

The disconnect between educational research and policy

Is the educational reform policy backed up by international research?

Govt quick to dismiss Green education policy

Our political editor Brent Edwards looks at the Green Party's education policy launch yesterday and the government's response.

Gordon Campbell on Govt's plans for incentivising teachers

Scoop.co.nz
To date, and as the charter schools experiment has shown, the government appears to have an ideologically-driven readiness to monetise and to atomise aspects of the existing state education system. In similar vein, yesterday's changes can validly be ...

Opposition parties trash education plan

MSN NZ News
NZ First's Tracey Martin says the money would be better used to get more teachers into classrooms. "We're not confident that rewarding a few will assist with growing the profession as a whole and could create more competition rather than the ...

New teaching structures welcomed but experts say more to do 

Education experts have reacted warmly to the Government's plans for new teaching structures, but say broader issues like poverty and children's health also need to be tackled.

Maori schools included in change agenda

waateanews.com
"This is for the whole of the system, for Maori immersion and English immersion schools, state and state integrated. The working group I have asked the secretary of education to put together to look at the design details includes representation from ...

Can you call this 'free' education?

Stuff.co.nz
A "free" education in New Zealand is costing families tens of thousands of dollars, a survey has found. Its findings were released today as parents deal with back-to-school costs, including uniforms, workbooks, sports fees and school donations. For a ...

Greater equity vital for improving children's learning

Scoop.co.nz (press release)
“Cuts to professional development for teachers and early childhood teacher-student ratios, along with National Standards and poorly paid support staff have clearly done nothing to improve educational outcomes for students. “It's time to take a ...

Holding kids back 'traumatic'

Fifty years of research shows holding children back a year at school does more harm than good - but political legislators have ignored it, a visiting American education professor says.
Parents with preschool-age children are expected to be the big winners from Labour leader David Cunliffe's State of the Nation address today.Mr Cunliffe said the policy would help lower- and middle-income parents who were struggling...

Charter school focused on academia

3News NZ
Nick Hyde already runs an Army prep course on the North Shore and says excessive demand for that program – a one-year NZQA-accredited course – led him to apply to set up one of the country's first charter schools. He says Vanguard will help students ...

Second parent making complaint over religious education

A second parent is taking a complaint to the Human Rights Commission about an Auckland state primary school's Christian education classes.

Exam cheating inquiry continues 8 months on

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) is still looking through material it seized eight months ago in an investigation into a far-reaching cheating scandal.

Principals worried they cannot charge for school camps

The new school year starts this week and families are facing back to school costs like uniforms, donations, and fees for materials used in some subjects.

Over 200 schools signed up to N4L

Techday NZ
Education Minister Hekia Parata and Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye says 212 schools have signed agreements to connect to the Network for Learning (N4L) managed network. “The pace of connecting schools is gaining momentum,” Parata says.

State school v private education

Stuff.co.nz
... switched to the private collegiate school in year 12, she had to work harder, there was compulsory sport and lateness was not tolerated. The printing budget was not an issue, and teachers would open theirclassrooms for extra tutoring before or ...
A state primary school has recommended that children have an iPad for the upcoming school year, as an increasing number of schools add tablets or laptops to their back-to-school lists.Waimauku School in West Auckland has held an...

Classroom boost as Apple's educational iPad lets loose…

Techday NZ
... 51 countries now including Brazil, Italy and Japan; and iTunes U Course Manager, available in 70 countries now including Russia, Thailand and Malaysia, allowing educators to create and distribute courses for their own classrooms, or share them ...

Sacrifices required for education

Stuff.co.nz
She chose state integrated Hutt International Boys' School for Olly, 16, because of its strong sporting and academic reputation, and wanted Lily, 13, to attend all-girls integrated school St Oran's College. Her youngest son, 10-year-old Joe, is ...

School ditches rules and loses bullies

Manawatu Standard
Principal Bruce McLachlan rid the school of playtime rules as part of a successful university experiment. "We want kids to be safe and to look after them, but we end up wrapping them in cotton wool when in fact they should be able to fall over ...

Greg Green - Flipped schools 

Greg Green is the Principal of Clintondale High School in Michigan, which has turned the traditional school model on its head. Now, teachers record their lessons online for students to watch outside of school, and class time is used to work through problems and do homework. It's one of a growing number of so-called "Flipped Schools". Greg Green explains how it works and describes the results.

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