Hundreds of thousands of maths books, teaching guides, and resources are being packed up for schools around the country ahead of the new school year.
Education Minister Erica Stanford told 1News 450,000-plus children “will have a high-quality, curriculum aligned, internationally comparable workbook in their hand” from next year, while teachers will receive guidebooks and lesson plans for mathematics.
“That’s absolutely huge,” she said.
The distributor told 1News it’s the biggest education order they’ll carry out in the shortest amount of time.
In August 2024, the Government announced a plan to “transform maths education” by bringing forward the introduction of the refreshed maths curriculum in schools by a year to 2025, citing the scale of under-achievement.
New Zealand Principals’ Federation president Leanne Otene said while teachers and principals were “really grateful for those textbooks and those resources”, they were “not the answer” to improved mathematics achievement.
“What is the answer is teachers who are confident to be able to deliver, to be able to teach that effectively,” Otene said.
Professional development for the new curriculum won’t start until late January.
‘Grappling’ with change
Kyle Brewerton is president of the Auckland Primary Principals’ Association. (Source: Breakfast)
Otene is calling for all schools to receive funding for a literacy or mathematics specialist teacher to be employed to support other staff with teaching the new, structured approaches.
“So that we can drive that professional support from within our schools and not depend on contractors or outside providers to deliver that,” she said.
Structured literacy teachers to help students in Year 0-2 learn to read are being funded by the Government to replace Reading Recovery teachers, at a cost of $29.1 million each year.
Otene said some schools are still “grappling” with embedding the structured literacy changes in 2025, so preparing for the new maths curriculum within months at the same time has been difficult.
“We are all self-managing schools and so our message to our members is that if you are still working on your structured literacy, continue on with that,” Otene said.
“You need to embed that first and then take on the maths curriculum when your staff and your community are ready to take on that extra professional development.”
Stanford acknowledged that schools are at different levels of preparedness.
“It’s not term one next year and we’re all doing it perfectly,” she said.
“We have said ‘go at your own pace’ but man, they are just picking it up and running with it and I’m really appreciative of that.”
Stanford said there will still be different approaches to how teachers teach the new curriculum.
“We have to remember it’s not like we’re all going to be sitting there in rows and learning things from page five, right?
“We are guided by the science of learning with explicit teaching and a structured knowledge-rich curriculum. However, the teachers in the classroom with their professionalism bring that magic that no one else can bring, which is making sure that the children in front of them are engaged with the material.”
Stanford said feedback from the sector has informed the rollout of the new curriculums and she was appreciative of the communication.
The minister said schools that have already implemented a structured approach have told her how successful the shift has been.
“We have never seen results, especially for our Māori and Pasifika kids and our low-decile kids, who are just accelerating their learning and learning now at the same rate as every other child in reading.
“They can see that shift to that explicit, structured teaching is a big game changer and now they’re really excited about it for maths.”
Rifts, low morale
The pace of change in education caused a rift between the sector and Government in 2024.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s use of Curriculum Insights and Progress Study maths data when announcing the refreshed curriculum would be introduced in 2025, instead of 2026, led to low morale among school staff.
The results showed 22% of Year 8 students were meeting maths achievement expectations.
The provisional results weren’t measured against the curriculum teachers were using to teach students but against a draft of the incoming curriculum. The study author stated the results reflected a change in expectations rather than achievement.
“I’m very evidence-based and so I was disappointed that 22% was used over and over and over again and really what it did, is it painted a picture that teachers weren’t doing a good enough job,” Otene said.
“As a result of that, we’ve got a work force that really has taken a hit.”
She continued: “We take it quite seriously the job that we do, and teachers should be respected for the role in which they play in education.
“We want the best for every child, every child in our school.”
Otene said the sector now has a respectful relationship with the Education Minister. She said one of the stand-out moments from 2024 was that the minister was as determined as the sector to “make a difference for our young people”.
“I do want to thank the minister for the work that she has put in and around the Principal Leadership Programme because we both know that principal leadership is the key to improvement of student outcomes.”
Calls for a ‘co-design approach’
Otene said she wanted to see the Education Minister work with the sector on shaping education policy and rollouts in 2025.
“We would like to see, going forward, that we go from a consultative approach to more of a co-design approach that we work together on and support each other with the initiatives that are put in place.
“My job as the advocate for principals across the country is to support our minister in understanding just how important it is to work with the sector, with the sector leaders, and not just a group of principals or, you know, those principals that align with your particular party.”
But Stanford said there’s no time to waste with introducing changes to improve the education system.
“Every single year, 60,000 new kids start school, and we have to start them off on the right track – structured literacy, structured mathematics, mastering topics – before they move on,” Stanford said.
While 2024 was full of Government announcements of change for literacy and maths, school lunches, NCEA, school property management and the charter school reintroduction, 2025 is already shaping up to be the year of delivery.
“There’s a lot of things on the go that we will be doing in the background but the key for us is to make sure that we’re giving schools lots of advance warning, lots of time, lots of information so that they know that they can plan, and they know what’s coming,” Stanford said.
The elephant in the room
The New Zealand Principals’ Federation wants to see improvements to learning support in 2025, referring to it as the elephant in the room.
“Two governments ago, they brought in learning support coordinators into some schools. The first tranche of them went out and it was never, ever extended to all schools,” Otene said.
When children with neurodiverse needs are unable to receive the proper support, she said, their parents “often point a finger at us and we’re left on the defensive”.
“For all of us, that is frustrating and I know parents are frustrated and so are we.”
Stanford said learning support is one of her education priorities.
In August 2024, the minister said a work programme to strengthen learning support was due to be taken to Cabinet.
Stanford said parents can expect greater information about their child’s learning and resources to help them learn at home from 2025.
“I want you to be demanding customers. I want you to know what is in the curriculum. I want you to know what your children are doing at school and how they are doing and you will,” she said.
“It’s Government and teachers and actually, parents in communities as well. They play a huge part, and we will arm them with the knowledge that they need and the resources they need to do some things at home so we can all be part of lifting achievement and closing the equity gap.”
Stanford wants all children to receive a quality education – particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds who fall through the cracks and “end up in our youth justice system”.
“The key thing we can give those kids is an excellent education to break that cycle, that will change their lives.
“That’s why I’m working at this frenetic pace and yes, it’s killing me, but it is worth it.”
