Latest news with #NZSchools
RNZ News
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Putting the fun in maths
Polymath founders have their game being used in half of New Zealand's primary schools. Sophie and Christian Silver were looking for a solution to kids' anxiety to try doing maths work when they landed on creating a game. Polymath is a website and app game that lets kids control a character and explore a virtual world, with their own island. Players interact with and build new objects, but to continue the game there are maths questions that need answering along the way. It's spread to schools largely through word of mouth, and as it is free, teachers do not need to make a budget request to get their classes started on the game. As well as New Zealand schools, Polymath is being picked up by schools as far as the US, UK and Canada. Sophie and Christian Silver speak to Kathryn about the inspiration behind the game and where they want to take it. Photo: Supplied by Polymath
RNZ News
18-05-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Learning Support in schools "at breaking point" : report
Learning support in New Zealand schools is at breaking point, and the status quo is failing many vunerable learners, according to a new report. Learning support is for neurodivergent children, or those with disabilities, health needs or experiences of trauma. Services may include speech language therapists, psychologists, occupational therapists and teacher aides. The report by the Aotearoa Educators' Collective highlights broken funding systems, families battling bureaucracy and children who have extra needs denied access. An estimated 15-20 per cent of the population is neurodivergent, but only 6-7 per cent of students receive any publicly funded learning support. The report finds Maori and Pasifika students, those attending rural schools and neurodivergent students are most affected by chronic underfunding, fragemented provision and inconsistent access. Kathryn speaks with report author Dr Sarah Aiono The Beyond Capacity: Learning Support in Crisis report is being launched at parliament tomorrow - Minister Erica Stanford has been invited. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
