Our feedback to Ministry on targeted supports
We wrote to the Ministry of Education on 28 August to provide feedback on the ‘Targeted supports to accelerate learning in literacy and te reo matatini’ document that was shared with school principals by email on 23 August 2024 and information posted to the Tāhūrangi website on the same day.
You can read our letter: here and the Ministry’s reponse to our letter (received 4 October 2024).
We sought feedback from a small group of teachers, principals, learning support specialist teachers (RTLB, RTLit) and PLD providers in compiling this letter.
Below is a summary of our feedback
We welcome the re-direction of funding from Reading Recovery & Early Literacy Support into structured literacy supports, but overall we were underwhelmed and confused by the proposals. We fear they are merely replicating the shortcomings of the existing system of learning support.
We hope you are open to making adjustments, ideally before the plans are rolled out, or at a minimum for next year, in order to meet the Minister’s aspiration that the ‘right support be available to the right student at the right time’ and that we cease failing our most vulnerable learners. This would include:
expanding the staffing supports on offer so they are more comprehensive and accessible to all schools (including intemerdiate and high schools) and to all students across all year levels,
clarifying the skills and experience (training) that literacy specialist teachers would be expected to have and make available funding for those needing upskilling,
considering how the RTLit service could be strengthened, and
better communicating the offerings in the context of an MTSS model of tiers of instruction, the wider changes to the Curriculum and assessment tools and practices, and the review of the Learning Support workforce that is currently underway.
In addition we set out 13 main concerns:
Lack of equity or access across schools.
Lack of funding to meet all needs.
Lack of certainty and continuity of funding.
Lack of clarity of how the proposals fit into MTSS model that must meet the needs of ALL students.
Lack of clarity on what training would be required for literacy specialsits.
Exclusionary eligibility criteria for kura and schools accessing support for te reo matatini.
Lack of staff funding support for Years 7 - 13.
Concerns around the design and efficancy of ALL.
Concerns over how kids will be picked up for support.
Lack of detail on how RTLit service might be strengthened.
Lack of clarity on roles of RTLB, LSC and SENCO.
Lack of PLD support for Teacher Aides.
Lack of consideration of resources/programmes that might be needed by schools.
You can read our letter: here and the Ministry’s reponse to our letter (received 4 October 2024).
