Despite policies recommending schools collaborate with whānau and Māori communities, and research that indicates why these connections are important, what remains less obvious is how these partnerships might be best achieved and sustained. This article discusses a professional development resource that challenges and supports school leadership teams to listen to their Māori communities in order ...

English-medium schools’ inclusion of whānau Māori aspirations for their children has been identified as a critical factor in the wellbeing of Māori students. What can teachers and school leaders in English-medium schools do to include whānau aspirations and strengthen whānau engagement in Māori students’ learning and wellbeing? A group of professional learning and development project ...

This article considers home learning for students whose schools have moved to digital learning environments. In this study we sought to gather perspectives about what sorts of home-learning activities might support school learning given that students have individual digital devices and access to the internet and class websites. Interviews with parents, students, and teachers at ...

In this edition of Assessment News education advisor Cathie Johnson encourages schools to consider how they can reflect and report on dimensions of engagement and learning that cannot be captured by academic achievement data. She poses a number of questions for readers to ponder and outlines some of the research findings that underpin the ...

It is not unusual to enter a school in New Zealand or internationally and discover that student portfolios are part of the work programme. Research indicates that the value of student portfolios varies considerably. Too often the purpose of a portfolio programme and the roles expected of different school community members, such as school ...

Does National Standards written reporting fully inform parents of their child’s achievements and thus better place them to support their child’s learning? Using the reporting of progress and achievement in writing, and the perceptions of eight parents, the current study pays particular attention to the nature, scope, and complexity of the information communicated to parents ...

PAT: Mathematics tests have been around since 1974, and are used in thousands of New Zealand classrooms. In this article we outline the history of the tests, then describe some recent and ongoing work that marks a new era in the evolution of the assessments. Until now, PAT Maths tests were composed solely of ...

Dr Sally Peters is a leading researcher in transitions from early childhood education to primary school. She recently co-edited a special issue of set’s sister journal, Early Childhood Folio, motivated by a “desire to enhance the transition experiences of young children moving between home, early childhood, and primary school settings”. We asked Sally ...

New entrants encounter many new routines and different approaches to learning when they start school. This study aimed to identify the role of peer learning in helping new entrants to learn at school. The article reports on strategies the teachers used to foster peer learning in new entrant classrooms. Peer learning was strengthened when ...