Interim decisions for 31 ChCh schools on Monday

URL: Interim decisions for 31 ChCh schools on Monday

Hekia Parata | Education

Education Minister Hekia Parata will announce the interim decisions for 31 of the 38 greater Christchurch schools affected by the Government’s Education Renewal Plans in Christchurch on Monday. “I would like to thank parents, students, teachers, principals, and wider school communities for the feedback they provided, particularly those who met me when I visited 35 of the affected schools late last year,” Ms Parata says...

Benefits of early childhood education promoted to Pacific families

URL: Benefits of early childhood education promoted to Pacific families

Hekia Parata | Pacific Island Affairs

Pacific Island Affairs and Education Minister Hekia Parata welcomes the first of a series of local workshops to inform Pacific families of the benefits of early childhood education (ECE) in Auckland this weekend. “We want to make sure that all Pacific families know that having our kids attend ECE improves future educational outcomes. To put it simply, if your child goes to ECE, they will do better at school,” says Ms Parata...

Kids urged to imagine their own Amazing Place

URL: Kids urged to imagine their own Amazing Place

Gerry Brownlee | Canterbury Earthquake Recovery

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the children of Christchurch have a unique opportunity to help develop part of the new central city through the Amazing Place playground competition. Competition packs have been distributed to every Canterbury school and early childhood centre, and schools have already begun registering to take part in the project, which has the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) as its principal sponsor. There are separate competitions for different age groups...

Test flaws flatter students' abilities - New Zealand Herald

New Zealand Herald

URL: Test flaws flatter students' abilities New Zealand Herald The e-asTTle writing test and the STAR reading test helped teachers identify students' strengths and weaknesses and were used to decide their National Standards ranking. New versions of the tests were rolled out in the second half of last year and the ...

Grade-inflation alarm sparks Ministry probe - New Zealand Listener

New Zealand Listener

URL: Grade-inflation alarm sparks Ministry probe New Zealand Listener Teachers use the results – along with their own observations and judgments – to work out National Standards grades. John Carrodus, principal of Edmonton Primary, says: “According to e-asTTle, we've got sows' ears out here that we've turned into silk ...

Primary school tests not being used as they should be

URL: Primary school tests not being used as they should be
Tests to identify children's learning needs are being used for purposes for which they have never been intended.

Committee hears opposition to charter schools - Radio New Zealand

URL: Committee hears opposition to charter schools
Radio New Zealand
A bill proposing charter schools has been overwhelmingly opposed at a parliamentary select committee meeting in Christchurch, with MPs told it is a disaster waiting to happen. The Education and Science committee is hearing submissions this week on the ...

Rodney Hide: Mad and bad unions hold us to ransom - New Zealand Herald

URL: Rodney Hide: Mad and bad unions hold us to ransom
New Zealand Herald
Their latest campaign is against the Government's proposed partnership, or charter, schools. The campaign is complete with union hyperbole, propaganda and wild claims. The PPTA says partnership schools are an attempt to "dismantle New Zealand's public ...

Key stands by Parata - New Zealand Herald

URL: Key stands by Parata
New Zealand Herald
This followed a torrid time during which she oversaw the class size backdown, the Novopay debacle and the breakdown in communications with Education Secretary Lesley Longstone and her subsequent departure. Mr Key told TVOne's Breakfast programme ...

Parata should have gone, says poll - New Zealand Herald

New Zealand Herald

URL: Parata should have gone, says poll New Zealand Herald Fifty-nine per cent of voters polled by Colmar Brunton believed Prime Minister John Key made the wrong decision by keeping Ms Parata as Education Minister in last month's Cabinet reshuffle following a torrid time during which she oversaw the class size ...

Pressure is on Parata - Stuff.co.nz

Stuff.co.nz

URL: Pressure is on Parata Stuff.co.nz With the backdrop of Novopay, charter schools, and the threat of performance pay for teachers and school closures, the pressure is very much on. As former education minister Lockwood Smith gave his valedictory speech last week, colleagues and opponents ...

Survey of up to 3000 children underway

URL: Survey of up to 3000 children underway
A University of Canterbury (UC) survey of up to 3000 children will help provide the first comprehensive study on early language development in New Zealand.

Time to get serious about education profits - Stuff.co.nz

Stuff.co.nz

URL: Time to get serious about education profits Stuff.co.nz When I then heard of a fluent Chinese speaker taking NCEA Chinese because it will be easy to get an Excellence endorsement, I started thinking about how attitudes towards education have changed over the years. We all know how important education is for ...

Pre-school brand now spreading to China - Stuff.co.nz

Stuff.co.nz

URL: Pre-school brand now spreading to China Stuff.co.nz ... taken the childhood education brand to. CRAIG SIMCOX/Fairfax NZ. BIG HORIZONS: Little School founder Maria Johnson has now taken the childhood education brand to China, where a school will be open by August, and is eyeing the Middle East. ... The ...

Classroom turns field of dreams - New Zealand Herald

URL: Classroom turns field of dreams
New Zealand Herald
"They've been targeted as potentially disengaged students on the back on year nine, and we're aiming to re-engage them by bringing sport into the classroom. They'll follow exactly the same content as every other class, but sport will be the context ...

Dave Armstrong achieves NCEA standard with new play - National Business Review

URL: Dave Armstrong achieves NCEA standard with new play
National Business Review
The play manages to cleverly combine a sense of the timeless gym (it could be set any time in the last 30 years) along with contemporary references to NCEA, charter schools and Novopay. There are perceptive insights and comments about the nature of ...

NCEA provisional results: more Pasifika students achieving

URL: NCEA provisional results: more Pasifika students achieving
Maungakiekie MP, Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga, welcomes the provisional NCEA results showing more Pasifika achievement.

Principals say children at risk in fund squeeze - Stuff.co.nz

Stuff.co.nz

URL: Principals say children at risk in fund squeeze Stuff.co.nz While primary and secondary education in New Zealand was "free", many Southland schools requested financial donations from families to help pay for extras such as technology. In Southland, many of the parent donations were funnelled into technology as ...

Will be keep on sharing? - The Press

The Press

URL: Will be keep on sharing? The Press Education lecturer Veronica O'Toole has been looking at the emotional impact of the earthquakes on Christchurch teachers, exploring the idea that, as in New York after 9/11, teachers were the unsung heroes. In psychology, associate professor Neville ...

Principals fume over STA memo on Novopay

URL: Principals fume over STA memo on Novopay
With John Coulam - Waikato Primary Principals Association president and principal of Marion Catholic school in Hamilton. Lorraine Kerr - School Trustees Association president.

Visible traffic lights system will protect ears in classrooms - New Zealand Herald

URL: Visible traffic lights system will protect ears in classrooms
New Zealand Herald
"The sound indicators are particularly effective in open-plan classrooms where noise can reach uncomfortable levels fairly quickly," Louise Carroll, chief executive of the Foundation for the Deaf, said. "The classroom is where children learn by listening.

Take one tablet and go to school - Taranaki Daily News

Taranaki Daily News

URL: Take one tablet and go to school Taranaki Daily News "Some of our classrooms are 50 years old. They were designed for chalk and talk, not computers." To get connected to UFB and set up the school-wide wi-fi connection, New Plymouth Girls High had to upgrade its network servers to cope with the ...

School encourages electronic switch - Otago Daily Times

Otago Daily Times

URL: School encourages electronic switch Otago Daily Times Principal Andrew Hunter said an initiative was trialled in two classrooms last year in which pupils brought their own laptops, smartphones or tablets to use in class. It was a great success and now that parents had been consulted, the initiative would ...

Active children enjoy healthy snacks on tap - The Southland Times

The Southland Times

URL: Active children enjoy healthy snacks on tap The Southland Times Watching a classroom of children aged 3 to 5 take part in creating Valentines Day heart-themed crafts, leaping around on floor mats and dancing energetically along to a video with two teachers in red sparkly wigs, centre manager Janet Braithwaite said ...

Fonterra, Fisher & Paykel Join to Keep Milk Cool in Schools

URL: Fonterra, Fisher & Paykel Join to Keep Milk Cool in Schools
Fonterra is joining forces with another home-grown New Zealand business to ensure that the milk kids are drinking through the Fonterra Milk for Schools programme is perfectly chilled.