Parents Against Labelling

By Fi

*I* want to know how my child is doing at school, but in the early years you don't want *them* to know. Telling a young child that he/she is a failure is not the way to support their continued learning. Current reporting is fine. Spend the money that is being spent on implementing these standards on books, better facilities, more teachers...

By James C

I heard someone from Parents Against Labelling on National Radio this morning. I hope they're aware of Gilling's law (http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=857), and my current view is that national reading standards are an attempt to narrow (ie defeat) the incoming curriculum. If there is broad support from parent for action against the standards (which is a stronger condition than broad grumbling), then the obvious response is, on every day when standardised testing is happening, to discover that their children are sick. I am not a lawyer. I do not know whether I have described a criminal act.

By G A

$26 million to implement this. I get all the information I require on how my children are achieving in school, how they are progressing and how they rate against their peers. All I can see is that this money would have been far better spent providing additional classroom support for those requiring it.

By D Hunt

For me as a parent I get the information I want already as to how my child is learning, the MOE is offering nothing new. This covers all curriculum areas as well as social and emotional progress. The new reporting process is predominantly quantitative and learning is way to complex to be judged in such a defined way, so how does this do us as parents more of a service? I believe with out reservation that the teachers at my children's school offer a well rounded education that puts their needs first and foremost. I believe that many schools are like this. My concern about national standards is that it is a narrow focus within literacy and numeracy and provides a checklist approach to learning, something our schools have been proudly moving away from over recent years. I ask how a graph that shows my child as struggling in some parts of numeracy and literacy will do any more than demotivate them and help them to see themselves as not good at learning? The opinion question of 'wouldn't you rather know if your child wasn't up to scratch in year 8' is superficial as this is all that this new policy will do and no, that's not enough for me. I want more funding for support staff to work with our struggling kids not a generation of kids who are labelled but not supported.

By b

I would sooner know how my child is doing from the first year of school, and I would also want to be able to understand the schools rational and for the language to be straight forward. I think that in many schools the class room seems to have become a place where teachers can formulate and implement their program's to see if they work or not. This means the children and their needs becoming secondary. When discussing programs, schools talk as if they will work, whereas many of the programs are just theories waiting to be tested. Schools, the education system and the government need to come out and be more open and honest.

By Damon

As a parent being told that my children are performing at a level above or below their classmates means what? That information provides me no indication how my childrens performance rates compared to children attending other schools throughout the country. A national standard would enable parents to monitor how their childrens schools are perfoming. As a parent I am very interested in knowing if my childrens school was acheiving standards below the national average but would be more interested in knowing what the school was planning to do the raise their achievement standard. I would rather know the facts of my childs progress. Are principals worried they would be held accountable?? They should be. 99% of employees are accountable for their achievements, what makes teachers and principals different??

By David F

Every child like every human has something unique about them and that's what's beautiful about life. To try and fit someone according to a broadly accepted social mark is actually demeaning to their uniqueness and talents.