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Before you start thinking that there is a radical new health or safety (or better still, health and safety) measure in place to ban hundreds and thousands biscuits in schools, a more serious matter is at stake: are schools banning hundreds and thousands of students? This matters, because OECD data shows that school systems that transfer disruptive students out of schools, as a system, tend to perform lower and are less equitable. Read more

This week, Massey University Professors James Chapman and Bill Turner released a highly critical report of the Ministry of Education’s strategy for improving children’s literacy. In essence, they argue that the strategy has failed. Read more

It’s a story teachers often lament: Children bringing behavioural and emotional problems to school, without shoes on their feet or food in their bellies. Research in 2005 estimated that 10% of children in New Zealand go without breakfast. Read more

Last week I heard a 60-something-year-old talk about getting some files out of his ‘machine’. I imagined some kind of futuristic filing cabinet but it turns out he was talking about his computer. Read more

Last week, the OECD published Education at a Glance 2013, comparing education indicators across 42 countries. Ministers Steven Joyce and Hekia Parata highlighted a few points of interest. Read more

Should children be learning knowledge or skills? People argue as if one is more important than the other. Read more

I was told the story of a teacher in Ontario who reluctantly participated in a project to improve her students’ learning. After several months she found that “her students performed better than she had even expected herself.” When she told her story, she wept. Read more

The week when I was due to meet Michael Gove, The week when I was due to meet Michael Gove, England’s controversial Secretary of State for Education, New Zealand’s own Minister of Education, Hekia Parata, released a damning review of the New Zealand Teachers Council (NZTC) alongside a proposal to reform it into a more professional body. This was timely. Read more

At first glance, the glowing reports about Finnish education make it sound like a magical fairyland. Some of the myths surrounding the legend of Finland’s education system are that teachers’ work is easy and there are no high-stakes tests. Read more