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ASHBURTON
www.guardianonline.co.nz
Monday, November 4, 2013
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THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY
Primary schools up with the best BY MYLES HUME
MYLES.H@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Mid Canterbury primary schools rate among the best in the country when it comes to the core subjects in education. However, local principals are pleading parents not to read into the statistics they claim are inconsistent and will be used as political leverage. National standards figures obtained from the Ministry of Education show primary schools in the Ashburton District have
exceeded the national average in the number of pupils rated at or above expected reading, writing and maths levels in New Zealand. The 2012 figures show 80.6 per cent of pupils were at or above the expected level for reading (77.4 per cent nationally), 71.1 per cent in writing (70 per cent) and 78.1 per cent in maths (73.6 per cent). Although the figures make for good reading regarding the performance of Mid Canterbury
schools, principals are maintaining their stance against the national standards, which are determined by teacher judgments on individual children. “Even though they are called national standards, to try and get consistency throughout the country is very tricky,” Netherby School principal Andrew Leverton said. “Even trying to get consistent judgments within the school staff can be challenging, let alone in Ashburton and
throughout the country.” But Mr Leverton was keen to remind parents Mid Canterbury children were receiving a high quality education compared with other parts of the country, something he put down to the affluent community and high participation in early childhood education. To address consistency, the Ministry of Education is compiling a tool for all schools to use when making judgments, however schools have said they
will boycott the initiative. Tinwald School principal Peter Livingstone said he distributed the Ashburton District education profile among his staff when it was published, but it meant little to them. “At our school we don’t give any consideration to them, we aren’t worried about how we rate against other schools or how Ashburton performed . . . we only use the statistics within the school to look at performance,” he said.
Show time! Mia and Bella Grieve and Penny Marriott enjoyed a bird’s eye view of the action at the Ashburton A&P Show on Saturday. MORE
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