Phil Palfrey: Kaitao Intermediate Principal on the ERO report showing improvement in Maths and English

Improved relationships between teachers and students are being credited as just as important as the Government's curriculum changes. 

New Education Review Office research shows teachers are seeing more engaged students in maths and English, and three-quarters of parents say their child is making progress.  

Principal of Rotorua's Kaitao Intermediate, Phil Palfrey told Ryan Bridge it's also that more people are realising the importance of school.  

He says teachers have been working hard to build relationships with their students, which is equally as important as any curriculum changes.  

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More evidence that the education is on a role and
you report out this morning. It's the Education Review Office.
Primary age kids are not only getting better at English
in math, they're more excited about doing it. Three quarters
of parents say their child's showing clear progress. Teachers are
positive too. Phil Palfrey is with us from Kital Intermediate School.
He's the principal there.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Peel.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Good morning, morning, Yoda, Yoder. Good to have you on
the show. So thank goodness. We've made some changes to education.
Looks like it's bearing some early fruit.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yes, well, it seems to be. I haven't read the report,
to be honest, but I'm not surprised. I think that
the new curriculum, even though some of it's in drafts,
still is especially for literacy, but we are seeing progress.
I think it's to be fair, it's also to do

(00:53):
with the fact that I think our schools are building
good relationships with parents, and parents are really more comfortable
working with schools. We you know, we really try hard
to make sure our parents are involved as best as possible.
I will say I there's I just I can only
speak for my school, but I know that the kids

(01:16):
have developed great relationships with their teachers. And the teachers
work really hard to build those relationships, and I think
that's equally important, if not more important, than any curriculum changes,
and something I love to see.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Well, why is because I'm just reading the report, Nearly
all schools have started using the refreshed curriculum for English
and maths. Yes, it's something like ninety seven eighty five
percent depending on whether you're talking about English or maths
and now using the new curriculum. And the report, yes,
clearly says that this is what they're putting it down to,
because I guess what you're saying is it's it's teachers

(01:50):
and students getting on better and involving parents more. Why
is that suddenly changed?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
You know? Well, you know, we can't forget COVID, which
did some strange things. But I don't know. I just
think that everybody realizes how important education is, and more
and more people are realizing that children just have a
bit of a blique future if they opt out earlier
from school, and that to keep them in school is

(02:18):
really important. Children are getting back to school, enjoying school more,
and I just think that's just because I think a
whole lot of people are just realizing that that they
can't progress in their life if they don't get a
reasonable education or a good education.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Phil In terms of attributing any credit to Erica Stanford,
I've spoken to a couple of schools and principles now
and it seems like it's the sort of everyone's walking
on eggshells, not wanting to say it. Do you think
she's doing a good job.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
I think that she. I think I think the changes
in the correctum have been really good and really positive.
I think she's doing a good job, and she's where
she has seen that there was a little bit of
flimsy stuff going on there, and I agree with that,
and I kind of always have. I've always thought that,
for example, was mess I mean, I've been around a

(03:15):
long time, and I remember wondering why we had to
get rid of our textbox a long long time ago.
And I know that some people still see textbooks as
a darly word, but I never did. And I couldn't
understand why we went away to photocopying and doing a
whole lot of other things, and that we didn't because

(03:35):
because I didn't see the basics being taught. And I
think that there's still an emphasis on basics, and I
think that's where still parents have a role to do
that too. For example, an intermediate school, we really stress
the fact that you need to know your own basic
times tables and that's never changed. But somewhere along the

(03:56):
line people thought that, you know, maybe they could learn
it if they needed to learn it. No, no, no,
you have to learn it. You have to know it,
and you have to be able to just roll them off,
you know. And I couldn't do that when I was young,
so I know how that that affected me. So that's
why I'm sort of really making sure that the teachers
are still going over basic facts with the kids because

(04:17):
it's really really important. But see, we use the new
Oxford University Press resources which have been provided by the government,
so you can say that's a good thing because it's
wor really well and we see we're starting to see
progress in our kids in maths, which is really really exciting,
really happy.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Right, Phil, appreciate your time this morning, Phil Palfra who
they can't tell intermediate principle Time For more from earlier
edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks it
be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,