Anthony Harrison and Latoya Uerata were all smiles this week at Kelvin Rd School as the nationwide roll-out of free dental kits began.

Bullrush and other potentially bruising activities are returning to play as research points to the long-term benefits of scraped knees and the odd broken bone.

School children are being taught how to read and write by watching Hollywood blockbusters with subtitles.

There won't be any changes to legislation around the controversial partnership schools despite opposition parties continuing their objections to elements of the bill.

Backers of a controversial scheme to fast-track trainee teachers into classrooms are claiming initial success, with all 16 inaugural graduates passing their first three months as teachers.

The Government will invest $80.5 million of operating funding over four years to lift educational achievement, including funding for behaviour programmes.

The number of children seriously hurt while riding push scooters has skyrocketed with their popularity. More than 6000 under-14s were injured last year.

It's exam time for applicants hoping to run charter schools, the Act Party's competitive prod at state schools which are said to be failing too many Maori, Pacific and other "disadvantaged" kids.

There are no plans to replicate the way Christchurch schools have been rationalised elsewhere in the country, Education Minister Hekia Parata has assured primary school principals.

The 23 children in the classroom at Richmond Road School in Ponsonby are sitting on the mat, just like the kids in any other primary class.

Education Minister Hekia Parata has corrected an answer to Parliament about the resignation of Education Secretary Lesley Longstone.

Education Minister Hekia Parata is refusing to budge on Thursday's Christchurch schools closure and merger deadline in spite of an Ombudsman's Office investigation into the consultation process.

The Education Minister has accepted there's room for improvement after a rare move from the Ombudsman to investigate Education Ministry consultation processes

The head of secondary school principals has criticised the Government for not doing enough to help schools combat the growing problem of bullying.

The Ministry of Education is bloated, inefficient and making the jobs of principals more difficult, says the outgoing president of the Secondary Principals' Association.

In this environment it almost defies belief that people continue to think they can fool the system, writes Shelley Bridgeman. Anyone who tries to cheat like this is clearly not thinking straight.

Weekend Herald stories about how children learn maths at school have prompted a flood of responses from readers and experts. Andrew Laxon explains what the argument is about.

Oh-kayyyy. So Mike Williams, a former Labour Party president, calls parents who try to get their kids into higher decile schools "dumb", writes Deborah Hill Cone.

The chances of the most disadvantaged students getting any benefit from a PPP school may be no better than the toss of a coin, writes John O'Neill.

It is many years since our primary schools adopted "new maths".

Stressed primary schools are struggling to fend off enrolment challenges from pushy out-of-zone parents.

In plain language, the Wanganui Collegiate integration is a taxpayer bailout for a failing private school, writes John Minto.

A family who bought a home to be within a school zone discovered after the purchase that the primary school took only pupils from odd-numbered houses in the street.

Angry parents in a small coastal town claim changes to a school bus route will put children's lives at risk.

Parents can now pay school fees in some bookstores while picking up stationery packs as the battle for back-to-school dollars heats up.

The recent small surge in reports recounting child poverty in New Zealand make grim reading, writes Paul Moon, especially as so many of the conditions blighting children's lives can easily be remedied.