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RNZ News
22-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Budget 2025: Government's $747m boost for learning a 'breakthrough'
The government's $747 million boost for learning support is getting the thumbs up from schools, despite the cuts it caused in other areas of education spending . The Principals' Federation described the increase as a "breakthrough", teacher union the Educational Institute Te Riu Roa said it was welcome but "a drop in the ocean", while the Post Primary Teachers' Association said increases to the funding pool for children with the most serious needs would make "a significant difference" for those students. Principals at a post-Budget briefing on Thursday afternoon told RNZ they agreed with Education Minister Erica Stanford's description of the increase as seismic, saying it would make a big difference for children with learning and behavioural needs. The money would provide more specialist staff, more teacher aide hours and included $100 million to build more classrooms for specialist schools serving children with disabilities. After the briefing, education consultant Margi Leech thanked Stanford for the increase in learning support funding. She later told RNZ the issue was very personal. "I have a daughter with Down syndrome and have had to fight to get support for her. It's as if the attitude in the past has been 'she's got Down syndrome she doesn't matter, she's never going to get a job'. But she's now 26, living in her own home, participating and contributing in the community... and I see that this Budget is recognising the potential for our very special children," she said. The initiative will ensure all primary and intermediate schools have access to a learning support coordinator, and boosts the service for pre-schoolers while also extending it into the first year of primary school. Oropi School principal Andrew King said the announcement would make a difference for the pupils at his school who had learning needs. "We've got about 30 or 40 children on our register... we have ORS children and high health needs children and children with lower needs," he said. "It's going to give the time needed to access the services that these kids need which we've just not had." Much of the funding was aimed at primary schools but Avonside Girls' High School principal Catherine Law said secondary schools would benefit from that. "When students come to us in Year 9 and 10, if they haven't had that kind of intervention and support in 0 to 8, then obviously we are having to pick up a lot more of the resourcing and working with those students and wrap around," she said. "So for us it actually is really, really great to hear that there'll be a lot of investment into that learning support coordinator role, into more teacher aide hours, and into those specialist roles in the primary sector and intermediate sector." Law said Avonside was part of a strong Kāhui Ako - the scheme that clustered schools to work together - but she accepted it would be cut to contribute $375 million to the learning support increase. Burnside High School principal Scott Haines said in 16 years as a principal he had never seen a Budget that would have so much impact on learning support. He said he was especially happy with a $122 million boost to the Ongoing Resource Scheme for students with the highest needs. "One of the big ticket items for me I think was every student who who gains ORS verification will get the funding. I think that's been a a source of great frustration for many years that we would get students denied for ORS funding based on the the lack of places rather than the lack of need," he said. However, Haines said he was disappointed the roll out of more learning support coordinators was focused on primary and intermediate schools, not secondary schools. He was also worried about funding for school property, despite a big boost in last year's Budget and $672m over four years in this year's Budget. "Capital investment in school property just remains at critical levels. Every school has a horror story around school property and it's the persistent issue across the country that will plague us in years to come," he said. Education Minister Erica Stanford had been promising a learning support Budget this year. She told RNZ she knew it would make a big difference. "This was huge to me personally and as you could see from some of the emotion in the audience, this is going to be huge for parents with children who need additional help at school - learners who have the most high and complex needs, right down to those children who just need a bit of extra help and literacy and numeracy. This is going to be game changing for those students," she said. Stanford said a significant portion of the new funding was focused on the youngest children. "We know the earlier we intervene in a child's life, the better chance of success they have, and so making sure we're getting ed-psychs, speech, language therapists, early intervention, teachers who deal with families and children and teachers involved as early as we possibly can means those children enter school and have the best chance to be able to learn to read and write, do mathematics and and have the chance of success," she said. Stanford said she was confident teachers and principals would accept the cuts made to other areas of the school budget in order to pay for the learning support increase. She said past education ministers and the Education Ministry itself had not ensured that spending was getting results. "We are going through every single line of spend, working out if it is getting the outcomes we need and if it's not we're going to stop it and reprioritise it elsewhere. And that's what you've seen this year. There is a significant reprioritisation directly into the frontline into our kids to change lives and away from things that weren't working. And frankly, that's what we should be doing from now on," she said.
RNZ News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Principals worried by ERO report changes
Photo: 123RF The Principals Federation is worried new-look Education Review Office reports are too hard on underperforming schools and will damage the watchdog's relationship with schools. Since February, ERO's reviews of primary schools included a section titled "parent summary" with brief answers to questions including "How well are learners succeeding?" and "What is the quality of teaching and learning?" They also stated how students were performing in reading, writing, maths and attendance. Some of the more negative comments in recent reports included: The review office said the new reports were more parent-friendly and initial feedback from principals was positive. Chief review officer Nicholas Pole told RNZ in a statement ERO had spoken to more than half of the schools that had received the new style reports. "Their feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Most principals view the new reports as clear, concise and simple and easy to read. Almost all principals said the report aligns well with current priorities," he said. But the Principals Federation said it was worried by the change and principals spoken to by RNZ said the reports were too simplistic and risked a return to high-stakes audits that could make or break a school's reputation in the community. Photo: 123RF Federation president Leanne Otene said it was worried the reports had swung too far toward public accountability. She said there had already been a case where a principal was unfairly exposed to public criticism without sufficient support. "We've got a beginning principal who's gone into a school, the school's halfway through a reporting process. She's been in there for six months. She gets a community report, and it is shocking, it's not the greatest report. You've got the community now up in arms because they've seen that things need to improve in so many various different areas. Now, is it fair that that a beginning principal should have all that pressure? I would say no," Otene said. She said ERO should have waited, worked with the school and then published a report that highlighted the changes the new principal had made. "When things are going well, the reports are excellent. When things are not going well, it's very clear that this could have an impact on those communities and we need to make sure that principals and teachers have got support when things are not going so well," she said. Otene said ERO had changed its reviews over time to focus on supporting schools to improve. That involved developing trust between schools and reviewers and the federation feared the new reports put that at risk. "We're concerned that it will change once more schools have this type of reporting. That that relationship of trust, of sharing where you need to improve will fall away." Canterbury Primary Principals Association president Lisa Dillon-Roberts said the new reports had a narrower focus than in the past and she worried rich information about schools could be overlooked. "There is a lot of information collated between the ERO evaluative partners and the school leaders. But actually when it comes time to write the report it has to fit into quite a narrow category and I wonder if there is a wide band of progress that is being missed," she said. Dillon-Roberts said part of the ERO evaluation was completed online by principals using drop down menus which restricted the options they could choose. She said schools still found value in working with the reviewers, known as evaluative partners, who supported schools to improve. Dunedin North Intermediate principal Heidi Hayward said ERO was most useful when it helped schools improve. But she worried the new style of report would hamper that goal. "Anybody who's been involved in staff appraisal will know that if the stakes are really high the staff member, or in this case the school, is less likely to be open and honest about the aspects of the job that they need support with," she said. "So I think one of the concerns is that if it feels like it's a report going directly to parents and that it's too raw, then schools will clam up." Hayward said ERO had been moving to an approach where reviewers stayed in touch with a school over several years rather than basing their reviews on one-off visits. She said it needed to keep it that way. "The risk with any short-term, high-stakes evaluation is that schools feel the need to sugar-coat, and they don't feel they can be as vulnerable and open enough that they need to be to address the things that will really bring about positive change for students," she said. Secondary school reports changed about a year ago to include sections on learner success including attendance. Heretaunga College was reviewed recently and principal John Murdoch said the new reports were not terribly useful for parents. "The visit this time was really strong, a really experienced group, but the report at the end falls way down in terms of really being any use to parents," he said. Murdoch said the reports needed to provide more information for parents. "Parents could misunderstand or make an assumption that things are actually fine. I think that needs to be clearer," he said. Review office school reports did not give a simple pass/fail judgement or even a ranking such as that used by the English school inspectorate, Ofsted. That was unlike ERO's early childhood reports which included on their first page a table showing whether an early learning service was above or below "the threshold for quality" in five areas including health and safety, leadership and children's learning. ERO told RNZ its approach to school audits was nuanced. "It is ERO's view that rather than reducing a school's performance to a single headline judgement, school-based evaluations need to be grounded in a detailed understanding of each school's unique context. Schools are complex, dynamic environments shaped by the needs of their learners, the communities they serve, and the leadership they provide. A single overall judgement can oversimplify these realities and limit opportunities for meaningful improvement," it said. "Through a more comprehensive, multi-dimensional reporting framework, ERO's approach is committed to an evidence-based evaluation process aimed at supporting more constructive engagement with what's going well and where further support is needed. It also acknowledges the importance of building trust in the evaluation process, promoting the wellbeing of school leaders, and focusing on continuous improvement rather than merely compliance." ERO said it understood Ofsted would drop its ranking system from September. Asked if ERO would continue with its new system of maintaining contact with schools rather than making one-off visits every few years, the review office said it would work differently with each school, according to its context, culture and needs. "If a school is assessed as needing more support to bring about improvements for learners, we will work with the school more often and maintain regular contact and oversight to ensure they stay focused on delivering an agreed improvement plan," it said. "This method holds schools accountable for addressing underlying concerns. Some schools won't need this level of support, and we will visit less often. Every school receives a published ERO report approximately every three years." The office said in the 12 months to 9 April, the review reports on its website received 930,743 views. It said its published reports served multiple objectives. "They ensure transparency and accountability by making findings publicly available, document the review process and the basis for the judgements made, clarify improvement priorities for stakeholders such as school boards, leadership and staff, and support parents in making informed decisions," it said.
RNZ News
12-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
'We're testing for testing's sake' - new maths tests fail to make the grade for principals
The government has announced a "maths check" for children in their first two years of schooling Photo: 123RF The government is "testing children to death" with the announcement of a new maths test for the youngest children, says the head of the Principals Federation. Next week's Budget will include $4 million to develop and introduce a "maths check" for children in their first two years of schooling. It also announced $56m over four years to employ the equivalent of 143 full-time maths intervention teachers to help primary school children who were struggling with the subject, and $40m over four years for small group maths tutoring for up to 34,000 children in Year 7-8 each year. Principals Federation president Leane Otene told RNZ the maths test would be on top of a phonics check for young children that it had already introduced. She said another test was not needed and she wanted to see evidence that the phonics test was making a difference. "We're testing for testing's sake. We know where the needs are. We know what supports that we need," she said. "Yes, it gives us information, but teachers will be able to tell you that they already know which children need that extra support. They don't need a test to tell them that so what is this test for, who is this test for, is what I will be asking. We've now got a phonics test for literacy in Year 1. We've now got a numeracy test in Year 2. We're testing our kids to death here." University of Canterbury mathematics education senior lecturer David Pomeroy said it was positive the government wants to prioritise the learning of young children in mathematics, however, he agreed the "biggest red flag" was the additional maths test. When government's have introduced compulsory testing in primary school, overseas statistics show there have been negative unintended consequences, Pomeroy told Morning Report. "Where it can go wrong is when a test becomes a part of a child's identity. So, this policy identifies children who are falling behind, or who are seen as having a gap in their learning really early on in the schooling. Children can internalise that label and it then becomes a self fulfilling prophecy." Education Minister Erica Stanford said on the new maths test would identify students who would benefit from additional support, early on in their schooling journey. "We are flying completely blind. There is no nation-wide, consistent assessment," Stanford told Morning Report . She said the skills test will be similar to the phonics test - which she said teachers are really enjoying. "We're not going to put kids in rows and have timed tests and it be very high stakes," Stanford said. "... More importantly, on a nation-wide level, it gives me a snapshot of 'woah we need more intervention teachers' or 'actually, since we've introduced structures maths, look at our results of our nation-wide consistent assessment at year two... every years its improving'." Otene said principals would welcome the funding for expert teachers, provided they targeted the children who were furthest behind in maths - those classed as "tier three" meaning they needed support from externally-sourced specialists. "We need that intervention support. But I'm really hoping that that's not just for tier two students... we need desperately learning support for those children who are 'well below'," she said. Otene said the funding for tutoring at intermediate schools was premature because it extended a pilot scheme that had not yet been assessed. "I'm a bit concerned that the minister does not have evidence to support the extending of that," she said. "It's another two weeks before they do the assessment of their Year 7 and 8 pilot. So, I think this is the cart before the horse to be quite frank." Otene said schools in the pilot could provide the tutoring themselves if they had an expert maths teacher, or they could use an online provider, or a hybrid model. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
08-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Principals at odds over new relationships and sexuality framework
A Principals' Federation group that considered the document concluded that some of the proposed content was being introduced too early. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller Consultation on the draft relationships and sexuality framework for schools closes on Friday, and some primary principals worry it is too explicit for their pupils. Meanwhile, a group of health education experts are warning the proposed content is a backwards step that makes trans people invisible. The draft was published after the government canned guidelines for teaching the subject because New Zealand First objected to what it called "gender ideology" . The draft framework proposed teaching five-year-olds about body parts and seeking and refusing permission, while Year 8s at intermediate school would learn about harmful sexual activities and sexual orientation. A Principals' Federation group that considered the document concluded that some of the proposed content was being introduced too early. "Complex concepts such as consent, coercion and sexual activity are introduced too early in Years 0-8 and would be better positioned at later stages," it said. Whangārei Intermediate principal Hayley Read, a member of the group, said some topics would be better taught at secondary school. "Some of the content that is purported to be taught at a Year 8 level refers to sexual activity, and we just don't believe it's appropriate because the age of sexual activity for our kids is 16, so getting into that space so early I think is is a little bit challenging, not only for our students, but also for our teachers and our parents." Read said the curriculum should concentrate on respectful, positive relationships. "Explicit content on sexual attraction and healthy sexual activities needs to stay in a space where kids can really understand what that means and we just feel that it's probably too early at primary education level. "I'm not naive to think that intermediate children, some of our kaimahi may be sexually active... I have students that are very mature, streetwise, but in the same classroom I have boys or girls running around with their little cars making roads under their desks." Phil Palfrey from Rotorua's Kaitao Intermediate was also in the group, and said he disagreed slightly with his colleagues. He said children were encountering sexual content at a much younger age than in the past thanks to social media, and schools had a responsibility to educate them. "We've seen this over and over again - when we find out things that their kids are doing online, their parents are shocked. They just can simply not believe it." Palfrey said the draft was clearer than the previous guidelines and the content was "not far off" what was appropriate for children to learn. "A lot of these things we can't leave to parents and we can't leave to outside agencies. I think schools sometimes have a responsibility to make sure kids are armed with all the tools they can for people who are trying to take advantage of them." However, Palfrey said he was not happy the draft excluded any mention of trans identities. "It needs to be very sensitive and very caring but people have to understand that people are different." Meanwhile, a group of University of Otago experts on sexuality education said the draft was a huge step backwards. Professor Karen Nairn said it was paternalistic, omitted any mention of transgender identities and schools would be better off with the guidelines the government had withdrawn. "The only glimpse that we have of any acknowledgement about diversity is a mention of intersex young people, and it mentions sexual orientations but even then doesn't spell out the diversity of those orientations," she said. Nairn said the framework would have a huge impact on young people if it went ahead unchanged. Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa health promotion director Fiona McNamara said the framework's treatment of gender was the biggest change from the withdrawn guidelines. "The really big thing that stands out in this framework is that it reduces gender to being two categories - men or women - and that is not the reality of gender, that's not the lived experience of a lot of students who are in schools," she said. NZ First leader and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone "That's not a good way to be teaching around these topics. It means that non-binary students or transgender students are missing out on really important health information that would be relevant to them. And it means that other students in the class are not hearing those really important messages around respecting other people and respecting diversity." McNamara said sensitive subjects could be taught in age-appropriate ways, and if anything the framework left some topics too late. "We're concerned that menstruation and puberty are spoken about too late. So, menstruation is not mentioned until Year 6 and we know that in New Zealand the average age for menstruation is 13 and it's normal to happen as early as nine years old, so this means that some students are going to be menstruating and experiencing puberty before it is spoken about in the classroom, and we need them to be prepared." Asked if he was happy with the draft framework, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said his party wanted parents to decide what was appropriate. "We're on the side of the parents and I'm waiting to see what the submissions say," he said. "This is a case where the parents are going to get control - not some self-appointed bureaucrats." The Ministry of Education expected to release an updated version of the framework in term four. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
