There is a rich variety of topics in this issue of set: Research Information for Teachers, with research reported from junior primary to senior secondary, and with themes intersecting these sectors: the use of ICT, literacy learning, and student engagement. These themes are particularly topical in the current educational environment.

Key messages:

• The need to identify students’ language, phonic and alphabet knowledge early on, and to systematically teach those skills in the early years.
• Schools need more support from reading specialists, and access to it needs to be easier.
• Prereading skills should be taught at preschool.

The skills of oral narrative and phonological awareness are seen as precursors and predictors of reading development. In this study of bilingual Māori primary school students, Fleur Harris found that current methods of assessing these skills are based on the English language and Western modes of storytelling, and cast these ...

Schools and teachers are expected to respond appropriately when they encounter children acting sexually. This article describes the literature on child sexual development and behaviour and the responses of Waikato primary school principals to a questionnaire. Specific issues for New Zealand primary schools and teachers are investigated, with suggestions for ...

Several years ago I was awestruck by the bold vision of Wellington’s Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. Their strategic plan has a 500-year time frame. This is, of course, entirely appropriate when you’re seeking to restore a landlocked “island” to its natural state. Setting an inspirational vision—and in time achieving it—requires a ...

When a teacher let her Years 4 and 5 class chose their own science topic to study, they settled on—what else?—farting. This article shows how letting students pursue their own interests led them to real science learning.

This article makes connections between the findings from an evaluation of the Ministry of Health’s Fruit in Schools (FiS) initiative and recent changes in the New Zealand curriculum, in particular in the Health and Physical Education (PE) learning area. It explores the rationale for actively involving students in health promotion ...

This companion article to “Enabling students to lead the way” explores the rationale for using a whole-school approach to health and wellbeing, and the connection between this approach and the revised curriculum. Some possible changes that could occur to school actions in regard to health and wellbeing are discussed. The ...

This article explores what a group of Years 11 and 13 students think about history, how they talk about it and what they are interested in studying. It suggests that being aware of student interests and considering how the key competencies relate to history as a subject could open the ...

One of the hot topics at a small science education conference I recently attended was the Nature of Science strand of the new curriculum. There was considerable discussion about the kind of support that would assist teachers both to understand what Nature of Science is about and to change their ...