Jane Huggins's Page

Yesterday, Kirwee School hosted a meeting with Amy Adams, MP for Selwyn, and 37 members from Malvern and Ellesmere branches. This was a fantastic turn-out for our area. Amy gave the Minister's answers to our previously sent questions about National Standards and then answered more questions from the floor. There was some interesting and passionate discussion!

If you haven't already, you should follow the link on the recent media page of this site and read the ODT article. Mrs T believes that poverty is no barrier to learning and she says that league tables cannot be banned. And, the best one (also quoted in Greg McLeod's blog) - I am not an expert, but I am the Minister. I believe that the sooner the general election comes around the better for all of us, but especially our children.

While we were discussing National Standards' impact on support staff, some other issues came up, eg:

• Should children with serious intellectual disabilities be taught in "special" schools, so that our teacher aides can assist less severely affected children to meet the standards?
• Should there be two kinds of teacher aides?
• How will the National Standards affect the type of resources needed, say, in the school library? Or maybe they won't (that, of course, is one…