- By Simeon Brown, Member of Parliament for Pakuranga
Pakuranga is home to some of the highest-achieving schools and students in the country, and I’m proud to be part of a Government that recognises the importance of a quality education for our children.
We’re continuing to raise achievement in schools across the country so all Kiwi kids have the knowledge, skills, and competencies they need to reach their full potential.
Our changes reflect the responsibility we have to these children and young people, to ensure their experiences with our education system deliver consistent, high-quality services that set students up for future success.
This includes our policies to:
- Ban cell phone use in school so students can concentrate on learning.
- Mandate an hour a day of reading, writing, and maths in primary and intermediate classrooms.
- Introduce a world-leading year-by-year, knowledge-rich, internationally comparable, evidence-based curriculum detailing what’s taught and when from year 1-13 in English and maths, with other subject areas under way.
- Mandate the teaching of phonics and structured literacy so every child gets the very best start when they learn to read.
- Fund $3 million in support for 3,000 year 7-8 students to accelerate their learning with 12 weeks of math tutoring.
- Provide 20,000 teachers with high quality professional development in structured literacy and 15,000 with training in structured maths.
The Education Review Office (ERO) has also tracked closely how well our new approaches are working, and the emerging findings are encouraging.
The ERO has found almost two-thirds of teachers say structured literacy approaches have already changed their teaching practices a lot, with many reporting it has improved engagement and literacy for most students.
This is a testament to the incredible work of our teachers. We know how important it is for our schools to be supported, which is why our Government will continue to ensure schools receive the support they need.
Parents can have confidence this Government is putting the foundations in place for their children to reach their full potential at school.
Thank you to our amazing principals, teachers and support staff for your incredibly hard work educating the next generation of Kiwis.
Our plan is setting every child in New Zealand up for success and is restoring ambition and achievement to the heart of the education system.
