A post in an earlier thread made the following assertion:
"Author: Anon
Date: 18-10-11 11:55
Thanks for that explanation Gary but it seems a very sad day to me that a child is shoved in the corner because there is no one to teach them at their level. I just can't wait for the day when National Standards for primary school children are published - then every child will be extended to their best possible level to promote great school results. This will certainly help kids who have reached the 'end of the road' in Year 5/6."
I'd be interested to hear whether anyone else thinks that publishing of National Standards (NS) will help encourage schools to extend our able children - I certainly don't.
Seems to me NS is expicitlydesigned to improve the tail, not at all for encouraging schools to cater for the needs of capable kids. Our high decile school is preoccupied with decreasing the number of children below standard, not increasing the number above standard. Once a child is at or above standard, there seems to be an implicit "we don't have to worry about her/him", and energy mostly shifts to the other end of the spectrum.
Extension for able students takes time and energy, and NS merely encourages schools to direct those resources to the poorest achieving students. NS seem to have been poorly conceived, and benefit very few, except a few ideologues in the MoE. Our teachers and management now spend a huge amount of resource generating this NS information, in addition to the assessments they already did, and the paperwork is just detracting from provding other services (like extension and acceleration) to our most capable kids.
Any other thoughts? Disagree? Agree? What can we do about it?
I also agree. Also, as I understand it, children will have to reach a standard across the board to be classified as "reaching standard". EG, A child with superb reading comprehension and creative writing skills, who is "failing" in maths will be classified as not reaching standard. Horrendous prospect for gifted kids.
When National Standards came in, and our daughter was assessed as having met the standard for 2 years ahead, the school decided she could look out the window. They pointed out that there was no real incentive for the school to have her get any stretch, when there were kids in the school who were not reaching the standards. They felt it better that resources went into getting everyone to the middle, than providing extra for those who already had achieved. I was on the BoT and managed to get some commitment for Maths extension. We now homeschool. I have no reason to believe that National Standards are going to be good for gifted kids.
