Tēnā koutou katoa,
Reporting to parents at least twice a year is an important requirement for all schools in Aotearoa, and our first formal reporting cycle for the year is approaching at the end of this term. Over the past 18 months, we have been diligently working on significant enhancements within our junior school curriculum. Some of these changes will soon be reflected in our reports to parents, and I wanted to take a moment to explain the educational philosophy guiding this innovation.
Our junior curriculum previously utilised a standards-based assessment style; mirroring the NCEA approach. While standards-based assessments certainly have their place – for instance, in situations like a driver’s license test where meeting a specific benchmark is crucial – our junior curriculum is fundamentally different. It is built upon learning progressions.
Learning progressions operate on the understanding that every student has a unique starting point and progresses at their own pace. Some students may start further ahead than their peers, while others may be at an earlier stage. Our primary focus as educators is to meet each student precisely where they are in their learning journey and to support their continuous improvement, regardless of their starting point. This approach emphasises that our junior curriculum is not about passing or failing, but rather about ensuring that learning is consistently progressing for every child.
Consequently, we have transitioned our junior curriculum assessments to a progressions-based approach. Alongside this, we are excited to move to a reporting system designed to help both parents and students clearly understand what a student knows or can do (feedback) and, crucially, what their next learning steps are (feedforward). The renowned New Zealand education researcher, John Hattie, whose work synthesizes thousands of studies, has demonstrated that providing students with this kind of clear feedforward – detailing their next steps in plain terms – is one of the most impactful strategies for accelerating student learning. We have quietly begun implementing this teaching and learning style across all our junior classes, and we are now building upon this by ensuring our reports are based on progress and articulate each student’s vital next learning steps.
Before I conclude this week’s pānui, I want to extend a very warm welcome to our two newest staff members: Princess Magpantay, who has joined our Mathematics and Statistics faculty, and Lizelle Du Preez, who has joined our English faculty. We are absolutely thrilled to welcome them to our school and have already been very impressed by their contributions.
Ngā mihi mahana,
Cameron Flude
