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Raising student achievement through school planning

Welcome to The New Zealand Curriculum Update

Curriculum Updates support school leaders and teachers as they work to design and review their school curriculum in line with the New Zealand Curriculum and with current knowledge and understandings about effective classroom teaching.

Curriculum Updates are published in the Education Gazette and are available online.

This Update focuses on the place of school planning within school-wide self-review.
Readers may find it helpful to also see Update 12, which discusses the role of teaching-as-inquiry within self-review aimed at improving outcomes for learners. Update 20 is also intended for schools and kura that are guided by Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.

Student reading in class.

School planning that is embedded within ongoing cycles of self-review helps lift student achievement.

Raised student achievement is a critical goal for New Zealand schools and kura. To reach it, school planning must focus on improving the achievement of all learners, especially those who require more support. It is essential that schools and kura identify these learners and the supports they need to achieve their potential.

This is the time of year when schools and kura have submitted their annual charter updates to the Ministry of Education and are finalising their annual reports. Through self-review, each school or kura establishes a shared vision and sets its priorities and targets for improving student achievement, in alignment with The New Zealand Curriculum and/or Te Marautanga o Aotearoa and reflecting community and whānau aspirations. An action plan will outline how these priorities and aspirations will be realised for each school.

Now the focus is on monitoring progress, checking effectiveness, and making changes where required.

This Update highlights the importance of planning within ongoing self-review aimed at improving student outcomes. It is intended to support schools and kura as they think about the next steps in their self-review cycle and to help them establish shared understandings about planning processes and expected outcomes.

Guiding questions He pātai

  • Does everybody in your school or kura community – teachers, students, and whānau – understand the priorities and targets for student achievement and how they will be realised? Does everybody understand the implications for themselves?
  • Does everybody understand how the action plan will be monitored and how progress towards goals and targets will be measured?
  • How will the action plan be modified if the goals and targets are not being achieved?

Download the full print version: Issue 20: April 2012 (PDF, 1 MB)


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