Search This Blog

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Assessment of the Nat Standards ?

Had an interesting day today and it revolved around assessment. I attended the APPA breakfast meeting to hear how we as Principals are intending to bring the Government to its knees over the Nat std debacle.[ lol]
Somehow I think we have missed the boat on this one. The river is flowing too swiftly and in my humble opinion I think it would be best to get on with making them work to our benefit. Let's use our knowledge & nous as educators and shape the silver chalice so that it provides the very best for our kids.
It can be done & if we can take the initiative away from the politicians. We can then make a positive difference. No good battling against the walls & having the boiling oil poured down on us from above. Let's undermind the ivory towers and bring them to a level that we can climb over & make headway into the future. I intend to be proactive on this one not reactive. We need to get our communities behind us and then make the changes as we see fit. At the moment the Minister has the backing from parents and we are paddling against the flow.
Later in the day my curriculum leadership team & I met with colleagues from Red Beach to hear & share where we are heading with assessment & reporrting to parents. Wonderful ideas evolved and I felt really positive we are heading in a very purposeful direction. We all viewed the Nat stds as a slight add on to be considered in our own developments. We are making them work for us - not the vice versa. It was so inspiring to sit down and chew over the issues with positive, clear thinkers who had the kids in mind.It is amazing how easy it is to comprehend the value of it all & place the whole circus in perspective. Yes there are flaws in the Nat stds & our assessment tools - but if we provide clarity & honesty to the stakeholders involved then what's the issue ?
I was thinking as we worked through our session today - what a pity the MOE/ Anne Tolley/and the knockers in education couldn't sit down as we were and say " Lets make this pigs ear into a purse!"
I am looking forward to when we report to our parents using the new format( with a Nat Stds flavour). I am certain we will only enhance our our community image. How good can that be !

No comments: