Getting back into the school routine

School is back. In our household it’s been all go — new stationary, uniforms and sorting out lunchboxes for our kids.

Most parents and kids will be looking forward to getting back into their schooling routine and catching up with their mates after the long summer holidays.

The quality of teaching has the biggest impact on how well children perform at school. Labour got rid of National Standards so it’s harder for parents to clearly understand how their child is performing at school.

National recently released a discussion document about education. National will support progress reporting to ensure parents have reliable and trusted information about how their children are doing. This will ensure that parents can more easily support their kids make improvements where needed.

The document discusses about valuing teachers and acknowledges the role they play in educating children.

We will focus on ensuring we attract and retain quality teachers and ensure they have ongoing professional development and support for children with complex needs to continue to help change lives.

National has committed to reducing class sizes in primary schools. Smaller class sizes will help reduce the workload teachers have.

Of course reducing class sizes means more teachers are needed. We are proposing a number of ways, including financial incentives, to attract more people to the profession or to get people to return to teaching. We understand the need to have strong recruitment and retention policies to ensure we can deliver the teachers we need.

We are also considering changes to teacher training which include strengthening accredited schools involved in teacher training and more support for teachers who mentor beginning teachers.

A quality education comes from our teachers, but it also comes from strengthening the curriculum. We want local curriculum to thrive and teachers to have world class curriculum resources.

The document reinforces our commitment to ensure more young people are reading, support for science and technology and languages.

National knows that if we support teachers through smaller class sizes, if we have a strong curriculum, high quality training, our teachers will have the tools, skills and time to ensure our young people get the best possible education in Horowhenua and Kapiti.

I also want to acknowledge the many volunteers who keep school communities thriving, particularly those that help serve breakfasts to children who would otherwise go hungry. Much appreciated.

All the best for term one.