School issues first national standards-based reports

National standards were introduced at the beginning of this school year. Photo / Northern Advocate

Some of New Zealand's first national standards-based student reports have been issued by a Hamilton school amid concerns from its principal.

The Education Ministry introduced national standards in schools at the beginning of this year, and will measure students' progress against national signposts for reading, writing and arithmetic.

Hamilton East School included references to national standards in reports given to parents in meetings last week. It is expected to issue written reports next week.

Principal Allan Bull said today he feared the change would have a negative effect on children's learning.

"We have always informed parents about the achievement of their children and what the next learning steps are. This time it was with reference to the national standards," he said.

"We are concerned that the emphasis on national standards will narrow the school curriculum and the broad base of learning that we value."

He was also concerned about the impact on children who fail and on teachers' workloads, he said.

Meanwhile, other schools have indicated what parents everywhere else might see from their schools' reporting.

A box showing children's progress against national standards, a section on the next steps in their learning, and a blurb about how parents can help out were key additions, said Glen Taylor School principal Lin Avery.

The school, in Auckland suburb Glendowie, gave parents trial reports based on national standards at the end of last year.

The school was making slight changes this year and would issue its reports in the second half of the year, Ms Avery said.

In South Auckland, Papatoetoe Central School will give parents its first report in July.

But principal Marilyn Gwilliam said even after a recent training session, details of how national standards would work in practice had not become clear.

"What's coming out of these training sessions is there will be layers upon layers of assessment data, progress moderation work ... it's a major systemic change in the New Zealand education system," said Ms Gwilliam, who is also president of the Auckland Primary Principals Association.

Reporting by national standards would take a "huge amount of time" for the teachers, who were not getting direct training from the Ministry, she said.

As an example, teachers from the school's four 8-year-olds' classes would have to sit together and look over results from every student to make sure they were being consistent, she said.

Auckland principals have completed one of two training sessions on implementing national standards, with the second to come in the middle of the year.

Hamilton's Deanwell Primary School is hosting a community meeting on Monday to clarify how national standards might work.

"In a nutshell, we are still trying to figure out where the standards fit in in terms of our curriculum," said principal Pat Poland.

"We have all the data that we need to report, but we're trying to align it with what the national standards require."

Mr Poland was "annoyed" the school was not receiving extra resources for the work, which would take a lot of time and money, he said.

The school had set up three curriculum teams - one each for reading, writing and maths - to implement the national standards.

Ms Avery said moderating results between teachers within Glen Taylor School was being done during regular meetings, and she expected the moderation process would be expanded across geographic clusters of schools next year.

The Ministry of Education offers templates for report cards on its website.