Labour’s plan for lifting children’s achievement in schools
Last month I announced Labour's plan to lift children’s education achievement in our primary schools.
Under Labour every child will have the opportunity to achieve to their full potential, supported by a strong partnership between parents, school, neighbours and the wider community.
Labour will lift achievement by setting high expectations for each student according to their individual ability and providing parents with information they want in plain language about their child’s learning.
Labour will require schools to use recognised assessment tools and teacher judgement to:
1. Determine the New Zealand Curriculum level a child is achieving.
2. Show a child’s rate of progress between reports over the course of a year.
3. Identify children not achieving within the curriculum level appropriate to their year at school.
4. Decide and report the next learning steps.
5. Report this information in plain language to parents at least twice a year.
These five key points are what parents say they want from their children’s schools.
Under Labour’s plan they will get clear and regular feedback on their children’s progress against the New Zealand curriculum and be able to see what steps are being taken to lift achievement levels.
Parents will be able to gain this valuable information without their school being forced to adopt a distracting ‘one-size fits all’ approach, which is splitting school communities.
Under Labour, schools will not be required to implement National’s standards.
These so-called standards are based on systems imported from England, the US and Australia, and ignore the fact that New Zealand already ranks above these countries in education performance.
They are not moderated, they differ from school to school, and are therefore neither national nor standard.
This has been a huge distraction for schools and parents which has to stop.
John Key and Anne Tolley have put politics ahead of everything else. It’s time to put children first again rather than fighting about how we do that.
Labour will give schools a choice. We believe that lifting education achievements is best left to the experts in partnership with parents, and our plan allows that to happen.
“But for any school community that genuinely supports ‘national standards’ and believes it provides the best way to get results for their students we will not bully them into submission.
It is time to take politics out of primary schools and support them to do what they do best – educating our kids to a standard envied by countries around the world.
Hamilton deserved more RWC games
Hamilton’s potential has again been overlooked by authorities in the allocation of Rugby World Cup matches. I’ve been watching pool games on TV in half-empty stadiums, knowing that if they had been held in Hamilton the crowd would have filled the Waikato Stadium.
It’s very frustrating, given that Hamilton has done such a superb job of hosting the two pool games we have had so far and our local businesses are crying out for the patronage.
I accept that we need the capacity of the big stadiums in Auckland and Wellington for the quarter finals, semis and final, but the when Argentina beat Scotland the other night in Wellington the stadium was half empty. It would have been more efficient for that game to have been in Hamilton.
This comes on top of the news that the Magic Netball team is only playing two of its seven matches in Hamilton, despite the fact that the city is the largest population and fan-base for the team.
I've had feedback from local businesses that they have been very quiet over the rugby world cup, except the days matches have been played here.
Hamilton needs representatives who are prepared to fight for the city’s attributes to be recognised. I am constantly reminding Parliament that we are New Zealand’s fourth-largest city. We deserved an extra pool game in Hamilton
Keep in touch with Sue and Labour online
|
Velodrome Decision Will Cost
The Velodrome decision will cost ratepayers more in years to come.
It's highly unusual for me to oppose new development in our region, but this one just doesn’t stack up. It was sold as being for the entire community, when it really is about high performance sport and the half-baked business case was done in haste.
I predict ratepayers will be asked to pay for its upkeep and maintenance in years to come.
It's a case of “wrong time, wrong place", with many families struggling to make ends meet and have their own children participate in local sports.
Take, for example the Hamilton mother I met a few months ago who told me she couldn’t afford for her daughter to play in her school netball team. I don’t think she will welcome her rates going up to pay for elite sportspeople to have a velodrome in Cambridge.
I would rather support ratepayer funding for the Te Awa River Ride, which would be used by many more people and would be a greater attraction to Hamilton and our region.
Alcohol purchase age law postponed again
This week is parliament's final sitting week before the election and the bill to return the alcohol puchase age to 20 is still languishing on the order paper, due to a lack of action on the part of the government.
The current laws have been proceeding through Parliament slowly, following a law commission report on alcohol that was put in place by the Labour Government.
Former Labour MP Martin Gallagher drafted a bill to return the purchase age to 20 while he was still in parliament. This was debated back in 2009, but it was voted down that year. I was among those who supported raising the age back then, but local National MPs David Bennett and Tim MacIndoe opposed it.
There are no more House sitting days before the election. When the final vote happens in the next political term I will again vote for 20 to be the age of purchase. I just hope the government can get motivated enough to finally pass the bill.
Back to top
|