Brian Hinchco: NZAIMS

I'm Brian Hinchco, the president of NZAIMS, which is the NZ Association of Intermediate and Middle Schooling. It's an association that has been in the NZ schooling environment for quite a number of years, but in recent times we have changed our direction.

Where we once were an association of intermediate schools, we have now broadened our membership base to include any structure of schooling that includes year 7-10 students. So we have had quite rapid growth in independent and integrated schools that have year 7-10 middle schools within a full schooling situation. Also year 7-8 in full primary schools.

The aim of NZAIMS is to act as the guardians of year 7-10 education in New Zealand. We are very passionate about all aspects of schooling, regardless of the structure that the young people might be attending. In particular, in recent times, we have been supporting the research that the MOE has been gathering on engagements and academic achievement of students in years 7-10.

To support the three research documents that have been released this week by the Minister of Education, we have also supported the development of a Middle Schooling website as part of TKI. So by entering TKI there is a drop-down menu that will take you to the Middle Schooling website. We hope to capture there not only research work but also stories of schools as they have implemented different aspects of the NZC and National Standards, as well as stories about the work we are doing with year 7-10 students.