Kyle Brewerton: Auckland Primary Principals' Association President on the Government's new math tutoring trial

Principals are welcoming a new method for bringing students’ failing maths back up to standard. 

The Government's announced a trial programme over the first two terms of next year, for about 2000 Year 7 and 8 students behind in maths learning. 

It will use small-group tutoring and supervised online tuition for 30 minutes, up to four times a week. 

Auckland Primary Principals' Association President Kyle Brewerton says the hybrid system sounds good. 

He says the approach has some merit, because it identifies the fact that one size doesn't necessarily fit all. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The government's playing catch up on student maths failures, trialing
a targeted math program to help intermediate students from term
one next year two thousand, year seven and eight students
will be part of an intensive program to get them
up to speed with the required curriculum level. The kids
will get thirty minutes extra online tuition for up to

(00:20):
four times a week. Kyle Brewerton is the Remuer intermediate
school principal. He's with us this morning, Kyl, Good morning,
Good morning, Ryan, Thanks for being with me. Will this
make a difference.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, that's what we'll find out. That's while we're doing
the trial. The approach has some merit. Using those online tools,
they're very efficient generally at finding out where potentially those
gaps are. But having the human element as well connected
with it, I think, you know, the combination of the
two should certainly go some ways to help those kids
who we've found to be lacking.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
How many of your kids are lacking?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
They're not many. We're pretty pretty lucky where we are,
but certainly nationally we know that there's a substantial number
of kids who definitely need some extra help at the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Does what makes the difference for your kids? Is it
the fact they're getting reinforced at home.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
There's a host of different factors. We certainly, I mean
in our own school, we know that the gains that
they make when they're with us are pretty spectacular. We
know we have some great programs, we have some great teachers.
We also use some of those online tools. It's just
a combination of things.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Really, Is it a real teacher doing a lesson in
this half hour online or is it like a multi
choice with questions and stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yes, again, it's a combination of the two. Really. So
the software atself, as I said, is pretty good at
finding out where those gaps are and then giving some
sort of tuition, some guidance, some examples, but then having
also a teacher, or at least a trained teacher ade
alongside them, helping them to understand and that makes sense

(02:01):
of what it is that perhaps those gaps that they
might have to explain some of those concepts, because maths
can be a little bit ambiguous at times, a little
bit abstract. So the human element combined with those software,
particularly the ones that do, as I say, find those gaps,
it's a powerful combination.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
The testing that goes on, how often are you testing
at the moment your intermediate students for maths.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, so there's two parts, and I mean we tend
to sort of focus on the assessment piece, but the
testing is used largely to look at those big trends.
So we'll do that twice a year to see how
overall how our kids are tracking, how particular groups are
tracking over the two years with us. But then we
also as we move through the different parts of maths,

(02:51):
we'll do some little assessments. We're also obviously watching and
sitting alongside them the whole time, just seeing who's understanding
and who's not, and what sort of extra support might
be needed as we go.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Do you do that more than other schools because the
government from next year it'll be at least two assessments
per year for math. Are others not doing that?

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well? That's what we've been told, but I certainly can't
speak for other schools. Certainly the schools around me and
people I talk to. It's a pretty standard approach because
you want to do it a couple of times a
year just to see as I see those trends that movement,
that progress, and also make sure you're catching those ones
who aren't keeping up.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Thanks so much for your time, Kyle, great to have
you on the show. Carl Bruce and the Auckland Primary
Sorry who is the Remuer intermediate school principal? For more
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