|New Zealand - the creative country or NZ the standardized country?|
Developing the gifts and talents of all students needs to be seen as the foundation for developing an innovative, more prosperous and fairer New Zealand. We can’t afford not to give all our children the best start in life in our schools.
Schools needto move away from the current government’s standardised ‘one size fits all’approach towards more personalised approach where learning is ‘tailored’ to each learner’s unique needs.
To place trust in teacher professionalism as the key to improving learning
Focus onensuring all students have the opportunity to develop their gifts and talents. We should be worried about an 'opportunity gap' more than an 'achievement gap' focussing on a few selected learning areas.
Ensure all students leave school with the foundation skills of literacy and numeracy in place –literacy and numeracy need to be seen as a means to an end and not as isolated subjects
Assist schools develop challenging integrated learning experiences that engage and develop the talents of all learners as well ensuring as in-depth content knowledge , an appreciation of the importance of environmental sustainability, and expertise in ICT
Value the importance of ensuring all students develop lifelong learning how to learn dispositions and attitudes
Introduce clear and easy to understand school report cards so parents know how well their child is performing.
Introduce National sampling to ensure school improvement is monitored so as to recognise and share strengths and to identify areas of concern.
Ensure all teachers receive professional development and encourage inter-school collaboration to share proven pedagogy; in particular to value the expertise of practicing teachers.
Assist low decile schools to compensate for the disadvantages students enter schools with (the one in five currently being seen as failing).
Bridge the gap between the classroom and the workforce so young people can get into training or work by developing a process to assist all students achieve this end.