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Speaker 1: Heather Duke for ZL.

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Speaker 2: Now, the government's confirmed they're bringing in tests for school

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Speaker 2: kids from the very first year that the kids are

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Speaker 2: in class, So new year one students are going to

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Speaker 2: be tested twice in their first years just to see

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Speaker 2: how they're going with the phonics, and then from year

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Speaker 2: three to the year eight they're going to be tested

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Speaker 2: twice a year for progress on reading, writing, and maths.

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Speaker 2: Erica Stanford is the Education Minister.

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Speaker 1: Hey Erica, good after know and how are you?

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Speaker 2: I'm well, thank you. Are teachers on board.

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Speaker 1: With this, but we were really cautious and careful in

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Speaker 1: our approach with us that we want parents to have

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Speaker 1: really good information about how their children are progressing through school,

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Speaker 1: but we also wanted to make sure that we weren't

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Speaker 1: putting more burden on teachers. We've chosen tools that teachers

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Speaker 1: already know, already use, and we're going to be investing,

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Speaker 1: you know, a lot of PLD to make sure that

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Speaker 1: all of the upskilling that we may need to do

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Speaker 1: in the center that we do over the next year.

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Speaker 2: Is it fair to say that, given that ninety percent

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Speaker 2: of schools are doing this in some way already, there's

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Speaker 2: a level of acceptance from teachers and educators that it

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Speaker 2: needs to happen.

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Speaker 1: Oh, look, I absolutely think there is a level of acceptance.

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Speaker 1: Most schools are doing assessments and using tools, and they're

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Speaker 1: doing it in a really good way. But ero have

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Speaker 1: been saying for a long time that there is no consistency.

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Speaker 1: We don't use consistent tools, and that while some schools

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Speaker 1: are using assessment data to inform practice really well, there

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Speaker 1: are many other schools who are doing it sort of averagely,

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Speaker 1: and then a number of schools who aren't doing it

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Speaker 1: very well at all. And so we just want to

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Speaker 1: make sure it's consistent across the country and we'll put

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Speaker 1: in resource where it's needed to upscool those teachers in

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Speaker 1: schools to make sure that they are using assessment data effectively.

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Speaker 2: What happens if the kids are falling about behind, if

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Speaker 2: the tests show that they need a little bit of help.

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Speaker 1: This is the whole purpose of assessment, because, as you know,

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Speaker 1: assessment on its own is going to do nothing. The

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Speaker 1: whole purpose of assessment is to make sure that early on,

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Speaker 1: as early as you can in year one, which is

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Speaker 1: why we're doing the phonics check. In year one, you

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Speaker 1: can tag those students who are not progressing as expected

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Speaker 1: and put that early intervention in place, which is what

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Speaker 1: we're doing with structured literacy in terms of our small

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Speaker 1: groups and one on one interventions. These phonics checks, for example,

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Speaker 1: will trigger that early intervention. Currently, we wait till the

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Speaker 1: kids are age fifteen. Forty percent of them can't pass

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Speaker 1: literacy and numeracy as you spok, and then we go,

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Speaker 1: oh dear, we want to get to them in year

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Speaker 1: one and get them on the right track and say

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Speaker 1: to parents, this is how they're progressing. These are the

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Speaker 1: interventions that are putting in place and give parents more

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Speaker 1: knowledge about how their children are progressing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, good stuff, lover Erica. Thank you. Erica stands for

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Speaker 2: the Education Ministry. For more from Heather Duplassy Allen Drive,

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