As the school year begins, students at eight Southland schools are taking part in a new $3 million trial to help bring their maths up to speed, Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds says.
The targeted acceleration programme aims to give Year 7 and 8 students at 145 schools across the country more confidence with maths in the classroom.
“The Southland schools taking part are Aparima, Aurora and Northern Southland Colleges, Drummond, Winton, Otautau and Half Moon Bay Primary Schools, and Māruawai College (established through the merger of Longford Intermediate and Gore High).
“I’m delighted to see local schools being involved in this 12-week trial, which will take place in Terms 1 and 2 and involve small group tutoring and supervised online tuition for 30 minutes, up to four times a week for each child.
“It’s excellent to see that local students who need extra support are actually getting it—and that their maths skills and knowledge will benefit from the extra support.
“Last year, significant numbers of students across the country didn’t meet the foundational literacy and numeracy levels required to gain NCEA.
“To achieve our goal of getting 80 percent of students to curriculum level by the time they get to high school, we need to be focused on teaching the basics brilliantly.
“Schools participating will receive funding for staff involved, based on the number of children taking part.
“This funding will be used to pay for staffing, as well as covering the costs associated with an AI tutoring tool. An evaluation of the trial will inform how to scale it up nationwide by next year.”
Participating Schools
- Aparima College – Secondary (Year 7-15)
- Aurora College – Secondary (Year 7-15)
- Drummond Primary School – Full Primary (Year 1-8)
- Halfmoon Bay School – Full Primary (Year 1-8)
- Māruawai College – Secondary (Year 7-15)
- Northern Southland College – Secondary (Year 7-15)
- Otautau School – Full Primary (Year 1-8)
- Winton School – Full Primary (Year 1-8)