CURRICULUM & STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT POLICY  

Linwood Intermediate School delivers a balanced programme of high quality education to:

• Our Mission: Provide opportunities for our students to develop skills, knowledge and values appropriate to each student’s academic, cultural, physical and social needs
• Our Vision: Prepare our children for the future by helping them to become confident connected, actively involved and lifelong learning

 

The development and delivery of the curriculum, and their evaluation, review and reporting are the core responsibilities of the School’s Principal and staff:

• Delivery and evaluation occur through the Principal and staff
• Development, review and reporting occur with the Principal and staff

 

1. Curriculum

The goals and priorities of the learning programme are set out by the government in its National Education Goals, 1990/rev. 1993:

1. The highest standards of achievement
2. Equality of educational opportunity
3. Ability to successfully compete in the modern, ever-changing world
4. A sound foundation in the early years
5. A broad education with high levels of competence
6. Excellence through clear learning objectives and monitoring
7. Learning success for those with special needs
8. Access for students to a nationally and internationally recognised qualification system
9. Increased participation and success by Maori

10.  Respect for the diverse ethnic and cultural heritage of New Zealand

 

 

The government’s expectations of the directions and contents of the learning programme are set out in the New Zealand Curriculum, 2007:

 

Vision: Young people who will be confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners
Values: Excellence Innovation, inquiry and curiosity Diversity Equity Community and participation Ecological sustainability Integrity Respect	Key competencies: Thinking Using language, symbols and texts Managing self Relating to others Participating and contributing	Learning areas: English The arts Health & physical education Learning languages Mathematics & statistics Science Social sciences Technology

 

 

 

 

2. Student Achievement

The Ministry of Education has developed the National Administration Guidelines, rev. 2010, to help trustees, principals and staff to work towards the government’s Goals and Curriculum Expectations set out above.

 

National Administration Guidelines (NAGs) 1 and 2 are relevant to this policy: 

NAG 1(a): develop and deliver learning programmes to:

1. provide all students with opportunities to achieve success
2. give priority to student achievement in Literacy and Numeracy
3. give priority to regular physical activity

 

NAG 1(b): gather information that is comprehensive enough to evaluate:

1. student progress and achievement in literacy and numeracy

   and,

1. the breadth and depth of learning relevant to the needs, abilities and interests of students; and to the nature and scope of the school’s Curriculum

 

NAG 1(c): identify students and groups of students who:

1. are not achieving
2. are at risk of not achieving
3. have special needs;

and,

1. identify aspects of the curriculum which need special attention

 

NAG 2: Each Board of Trustees, with the Principal and staff, is required to:

a)     Develop a strategic plan documenting how they are implementing the National Education Guidelines through their policies, plans and programmes

b)     Maintain an ongoing programme of self-review of those policies, plans and programmes

c)     Report to students and their parents on the achievement of individuals, and to the school’s community on the achievement of students as a whole

 

 

Linwood Intermediate School uses the following assessment tools:

Name	Subject	Frequency
Te Hononga	Values	Annual
STAR	Literacy: Reading	February & October
asTTle	Literacy: Writing	Annual
PAT Maths	Numeracy	February & October

 

and these provide the Board with the evidence to assert that teaching and learning at Linwood Intermediate School are meeting its objectives.

3. National Standards

The  Board of Linwood Intermediate School acknowledges the new (2010) guideline NAG 2A which requires it to:

• report to students and their parents in plain English writing on the student’s progress at least twice a year
• report school-level data in the Board’s Annual Report including:

• school strengths and areas identified for improvement
• planned actions for lifting achievement
• the number of students at, above, below, or well below the Standards
• how students are achieving and progressing against the Standards

 

The Board has followed the nationwide debate about the pros and cons of the Standards and notes the widespread concerns about the ambiguity, confusion, inaccuracy and inconsistency of the Standards.

 

The Ministry itself has admitted that (a) substantial clarification and support are going to be needed to help teachers make sense of the system; and (b) there are insufficient exemplars and properly aligned assessment tools to help teachers to make consistent judgements. 

 

The NZ Council for Educational Research has pointed out that norm referenced assessments in use currently do not align with the Standards, so that children can be marked as failing according to the Standards’ criteria when this is simply not true.

 

 

Given these circumstances the Board resolved at its meeting on 24 May 2011:

 

1. to continue to use our current assessment tools – refer para.2 above – until their data can be accurately aligned with and represented within the National Standards framework.

and

1. to submit our 2011 Charter by 1 July 2011 using our current assessment data.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Signed:            _____________________________________

                        Chairman Board of Trustees

Date:               ____/____/____