As you will be aware, at the end of last year the new Minister of Education Chris Hipkins announced that schools would no longer be required to report on the National Standards.

This decision was related to a range of concerns associated with the National Standards in particular the inconsistent manner in which they were being interpreted in schools, the narrowness of their focus and their ineffectiveness in showing the individual progress students were making.

The Ministry of Education has indicated that they will be working with the sector to develop a new system to replace the standards. In the meantime, please be assured that at Lyttelton Primary School we will continue to use a range of assessment tools to make robust judgments about our students’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

We are committed to sharing high quality information about achievement with parents and students that is assessed against the levels contained within the NZ Curriculum. These levels are closely aligned with the outgoing standards but will also reflect a broader range of learning areas. The sharing of this information will continue to take place in a variety of forms including Learning Conferences, regular contact with teachers and formal written reports.

We are excited about working with the Ministry and our community to develop a new system that better reflects the progress our tamariki are making and will keep you updated as this develops.