School Shorts

A study of school readiness found as many as 90 percent of primary schools surveyed said there was an increase in the number of new entrant students coming to school not knowing basic skills like holding a basic conversation, identifying their name or being able to go to the toilet independently. This episode explores the critical skills children need before starting school, the impact of COVID-19, and how parents and educators can work together to prepare children for a successful educational journey. Lucy Naylor from Auckland Primary Principals Association joins ECE Leader Kelly Seaburg to look at the reasons why we are seeing a decline in basic skills as well as offering practical tips for parents.

Online Schools and Alpha Schools have had a massive spike in interest but who do they work for and is this a long-term disruptor in education? In this episode, we explore the future of education with Penelope Barton, CEO of Crimson Global Education. Penelope shares what Crimson is working on in innovative models of schooling and whether it is more suited to catering for learners with different learning needs. Penelope Barton also looks at the role of AI in education and how she sees the relationship between education and technology working to prepare students for a rapidly changing world.

How well do you remember what grammatical words like adverb, adjective, prepositions actually mean? There is a lot of discussion in the education world at the moment about how much focus should be on teaching these word classes and instead focussing on whether a sentence instinctively feels right. Some research suggests being able to circle an adverb or noun on a worksheet has zero impact on writing ability. Other educators say everyone should have a common understanding of formal language grammar so that teachers can say 'try adding an adjective here' and students would be more clear about what kind of word to add in. Helen Walls aka The Writing Teacher looks at this debate in this episode of School Shorts. She has spoken in a previous episode about the importance of handwriting in the thinking process. This episode takes that discussion further to look at how to help children who are having challenges with writers including how to help older students still struggling.

Look, I'll admit it, I don't know much about the assessment system when it gets to High School. I know you can do NCEA (with potential changes on the horizon) and some students also do Cambridge Exams, IGCSE's and A-Levels. I was among the last to do the Bursary assessment system and with kids still in primary school, I don't really know much about how this all works. So consider this an explainer for those who might also have only a little knowledge about this. If you have a child that is in High School or will soon be, hopefully this gives you some idea of how this particular assessment works as we speak with Chris Wiggin from Cambridge International.

Hamish Brewer throws out the rule book when it comes to what people expect a Principal to be. The tattooed skateboarding Principal from New Zealand now spends most of his time in the U.S where he is one of the most recognisable and disruptive voices in education. Hamish has won national awards for transforming failing schools into 'high-performing', 'high-expectation communities'.

Artificial intelligence is already in classrooms. Bex Rose from AI Surge shares what that actually looks like for teachers, students and learning. Bex works directly with schools to help them understand how they can integrate and use AI to assist. She discusses what it means for ethics, safety and age appropriate use and common misconceptions about AI in education.

Learning to read isn’t just about sounding out words even though the biggest part of reading instruction that gets spoken about publicly is phonics. Education journalist and author Natalie Wexler explains why in this episode. She points out that at a certain point student's reading progress flattens out unless they haven't also had teaching that helps to build fluency, background knowledge, vocabulary and comprehension. Wexler talks about how some children can 'read' words but still not understand what they're reading.

As countries around the world look to a structured approach to literacy to try and lift achievement results, what can educators learn from the experience in Mississippi, USA. It went from having the second-worst reading statistics in 2013 to 9th in 2024. What was behind the rapid increase in achievement? Kymyona Burk lead the change as State Literacy Director and reflects on what was done well and what might have been done differently.