Melissa Chan-Green

Well, otherwise there's, as you talked about earlier, that opportunity cost, which would be particularly awful if you're missing that in a child that has...

you know, as gifted or as advanced in writing.

Yeah, so equally as important to look at those who are advanced in reading and in that area of the continuum as those who are going to struggle a little more

So this goes right back to what we were saying at the beginning where it's about appealing to all learners, right?

Yes.

Nancy, thank you so much for your time.

Really appreciate you being here and coming in and chatting with us while you've been here in New Zealand.

Hi and welcome to School Shorts with me, Melissa Chan-Green, journalist and mum of two with a passion for education.

In this episode, we are speaking with Andy Jackson.

He is the Head of Policy and Analysis with the Ministry of Education in New Zealand.

He's going to respond to some questions and some concerns that were raised in the previous episode with Jo Knox, who had carried out a survey of teachers across New Zealand and particularly looking into the way New Zealand students are enrolled at new entrant levels.

So this can mean that a student either goes into year zero

or year one.

It sometimes means that students will have maybe three terms at school before they begin year two, and other students, purely because of when they were born, might have an extra two or three terms more

than those students.

So when they start year two, they're not only older, but they've had more time at school.

Currently, there is a bit of flexibility in the way that schools can manage this, but many teachers in that survey had raised concerns about inequity

and particularly with changes to curriculum, as to how each student can have the same amount of exposure in the classroom to meet the same amount of set criteria under the new curriculum.

So here is Andy Jackson to answer some of those queries and concerns.

Well, Andy, thank you so much for your time and for being with us.