National Standards

On Monday 3rd of May Mrs Shand and I flew up to Auckland to attend the Independent Prep Schools course to look at how we will be implementing National Standards. It was an excellent day and a fantastic initiative by the Independent Schools to use our combined expertise to ensure the National Standards are meaningful for schools, parents and most improtantly the pupils. One of my concerns about National Standards is that they run the risk of teachers teaching to the tests and not teaching in the best interests of the pupils. I left feeling relieved that the other heads agreed that whatever stance we take the National Standards should inform what we are teaching our pupils. The data collected for National Standards should be used by teachers to work out where the needs are for their class and individual students. It should help them plan the next steps for them to help their students make meaningful strides in their own learning.

No one disagreed with National Standards as a concept but many were unstandably worried about how schools data could be used and interpreted by media. We will be looking at what we assess and report to try and make the reporting process more understandable for parents. Our aim is that parents have a clear understanding of where their sons are at and what we intend to do about this. Parents should see progress made throughout the year relative to their sons ability.