Letter to all schools
Tena koe
Yesterday the Minister of Education Anne Tolley announced the Government's plans for a much stronger frontline focus on lifting student achievement.
While there is much we can be proud of in our education system, too many students aren't achieving even the minimum qualifications they need to be engaged and informed citizens, and to play an active role in our society. Change will happen only if there is a relentless, system wide focus on improvement.
The Minister outlined three core elements to the focus including:
- expert practitioners appointed to work closely with schools
- the redesign of teacher professional development
- new programmes for students who need additional support.
Practitioners who have proven skills in lifting student achievement will be appointed to regional Ministry offices to work closely with schools. These people will be drawn from the wider education sector and from within the Ministry.
The aim of this refocused approach is to ensure all schools have the capability to improve outcomes for all students. Schools require differing levels of support but all schools can expect more direct support from the Ministry to lift student achievement.
Information obtained from the National Standards and/or Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori about how your students are progressing each year in reading, writing and mathematics will be used to target literacy and numeracy support for students that need it most.
The expert practitioners will be there to support you as needed, and the $36 million announced in the 2009 Budget is being used to develop and trial a number of programmes and resources for students who need more support.
This support includes training programmes for specialist literacy teachers to work with small groups of Year 2-8 students. Pilot programmes are being scoped to help students with mathematics. There are clearly identifiable points where students struggle when studying mathematics for example and it prevents them from making sound progress in their learning. Support will be targeted to help students get over those hurdles so they can continue learning.
We will also be expanding the opportunities for schools to introduce Reading Together, a programme which helps parents support their children in reading at home.
We know that strong leadership, effective teaching and effective partnerships with parents and whānau make the biggest difference for students. Schools have told us they want professional development focused on these areas. We are redesigning our approach to professional development in order to build on the programmes that we know are successful specifically in accelerating student progress.
Up to now, most of the professional development funded by the Ministry has been provided to schools by universities. In the future, a range of organisations (including universities) can bid to be Ministry-funded professional development providers.
The Ministry will be selecting high-quality providers with proven skills in providing support that accelerates student progress. Schools may receive professional development support from different places and different organisations in the future. We are moving to the redesigned approach to professional development in a phased way to minimise any disruption to the support available for schools.
Nāku noa, nā
Karen Sewell
Secretary for Education