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Speaker 1: The government's playing catch up on student maths failures, trialing

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Speaker 1: a targeted math program to help intermediate students from term

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Speaker 1: one next year two thousand, year seven and eight students

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Speaker 1: will be part of an intensive program to get them

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Speaker 1: up to speed with the required curriculum level. The kids

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Speaker 1: will get thirty minutes extra online tuition for up to

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Speaker 1: four times a week. Kyle Brewerton is the Remuer intermediate

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Speaker 1: school principal. He's with us this morning, Kyl, Good morning,

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Ryan, Thanks for being with me. Will this

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Speaker 1: make a difference.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's what we'll find out. That's while we're doing

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Speaker 2: the trial. The approach has some merit. Using those online tools,

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Speaker 2: they're very efficient generally at finding out where potentially those

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Speaker 2: gaps are. But having the human element as well connected

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Speaker 2: with it, I think, you know, the combination of the

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Speaker 2: two should certainly go some ways to help those kids

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Speaker 2: who we've found to be lacking.

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Speaker 1: How many of your kids are lacking?

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Speaker 2: They're not many. We're pretty pretty lucky where we are,

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Speaker 2: but certainly nationally we know that there's a substantial number

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Speaker 2: of kids who definitely need some extra help at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Does what makes the difference for your kids? Is it

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Speaker 1: the fact they're getting reinforced at home.

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Speaker 2: There's a host of different factors. We certainly, I mean

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Speaker 2: in our own school, we know that the gains that

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Speaker 2: they make when they're with us are pretty spectacular. We

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Speaker 2: know we have some great programs, we have some great teachers.

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Speaker 2: We also use some of those online tools. It's just

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Speaker 2: a combination of things.

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Speaker 1: Really, Is it a real teacher doing a lesson in

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Speaker 1: this half hour online or is it like a multi

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Speaker 1: choice with questions and stuff.

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Speaker 2: Yes, again, it's a combination of the two. Really. So

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Speaker 2: the software atself, as I said, is pretty good at

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Speaker 2: finding out where those gaps are and then giving some

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Speaker 2: sort of tuition, some guidance, some examples, but then having

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Speaker 2: also a teacher, or at least a trained teacher ade

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Speaker 2: alongside them, helping them to understand and that makes sense

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Speaker 2: of what it is that perhaps those gaps that they

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Speaker 2: might have to explain some of those concepts, because maths

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Speaker 2: can be a little bit ambiguous at times, a little

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Speaker 2: bit abstract. So the human element combined with those software,

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Speaker 2: particularly the ones that do, as I say, find those gaps,

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Speaker 2: it's a powerful combination.

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Speaker 1: The testing that goes on, how often are you testing

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Speaker 1: at the moment your intermediate students for maths.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's two parts, and I mean we tend

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Speaker 2: to sort of focus on the assessment piece, but the

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Speaker 2: testing is used largely to look at those big trends.

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Speaker 2: So we'll do that twice a year to see how

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Speaker 2: overall how our kids are tracking, how particular groups are

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Speaker 2: tracking over the two years with us. But then we

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Speaker 2: also as we move through the different parts of maths,

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Speaker 2: we'll do some little assessments. We're also obviously watching and

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Speaker 2: sitting alongside them the whole time, just seeing who's understanding

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Speaker 2: and who's not, and what sort of extra support might

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Speaker 2: be needed as we go.

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Speaker 1: Do you do that more than other schools because the

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Speaker 1: government from next year it'll be at least two assessments

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Speaker 1: per year for math. Are others not doing that?

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Speaker 2: Well? That's what we've been told, but I certainly can't

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Speaker 2: speak for other schools. Certainly the schools around me and

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Speaker 2: people I talk to. It's a pretty standard approach because

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Speaker 2: you want to do it a couple of times a

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Speaker 2: year just to see as I see those trends that movement,

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Speaker 2: that progress, and also make sure you're catching those ones

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Speaker 2: who aren't keeping up.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time, Kyle, great to have

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Speaker 1: you on the show. Carl Bruce and the Auckland Primary

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Speaker 1: Sorry who is the Remuer intermediate school principal? For more

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Speaker 1: from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News

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Speaker 1: podcast on iHeartRadio