So, where are we now…

This week, our Board of Trustees received another letter from the Ministry of Education. Long story short; after three weeks of providing documented evidence of our capabilities and processes regarding student achievement via e-mail, phone calls, and a meeting in Dunedin, the Ministry has completed reviewing us and has informed us that they are “…satisfied that your Board can meet its requirements.”

The letter goes onto quote from the minutes of the last Board meeting: “that implementing the NS requirements would be done professionally and thoroughly “…in true Waverley Park fashion; the school’s assessment practices in relation to the NS literacies are already compliant””. It concludes by thanking the Board for providing the information and asserts “Your school is now well placed to implement National Standards” and informs us that we will be monitored until after mid-year reporting is completed in 2012.

We were always confident that our school’s expectations (of student achievement) and professional practice that have been in place and in use for several years would stand-up to close scrutiny and readily transfer to meet the requirements of the National Standards. For us, the debate was always about protecting our kids and the potential of the New Zealand Curriculum from the damage done by standards regimes everywhere else in the world that they have been implemented.

Indeed, in a message to primary principals just yesterday, the New Zealand Principals Federation included the following:

“Everywhere else in the world, National Standards and its sister policy National Testing, has failed. Early adopters are now rejecting such policies and they look to countries like ours with our world class curriculum to lead them out of their National Testing wilderness. The irony of this situation is overwhelming. What these countries are finding is that the kind of accountability that comes with such policies negatively changes the whole culture of the education environment. It engenders disconnect between the professionals, the Ministry and Minister. The profession becomes alienated from its natural policy discussion forums. The environment becomes more competitive and more privatised which undermines the whole concept of public education and creates a culture of distrust rather than trust, openness and collaboration.”

However, we aim to keep our word to the Ministry; and we also intend to continue to hold true to our belief in the New Zealand Curriculum.

Consequently, this year’s reports - which will come home on Friday 9 December – not the week before as was stated in last week’s newsletter (consequently inducing several teacher heart attacks in the process); will not use the National Standards as we are not required to report using them until next year.

However, because of our processes (now acknowledged by the Ministry), they will be very similar to what you will get when we do use National Standards; and they’ll still be honest, accurate, and (because we listened to your feedback last year) more personalized to your child.