Absolutely right George (#74)

AJ (#73) must surely have just arrived from Mars. Other parts of the world have been tampering with the child-centred approach for decades and it has been an enormous failure. There's nothing new or remarkable about The Remarkables School. What is most remarkable is that the people at this school think they're doing something remarkably new.

from John 'Head of Early Retirement in Order to Avoid all this Rubbish'

AJ (#73) - do you really believe that nonesense?

NZ's curriculum internationally acclaimed? By whom? By others of a similar orientation who'd like their national curriculum to become 'child centric' in the same way. For their own purposes...

I can guarantee that if NZ were to reintoduce caning into schools there would be some throughout the world who would say that their countries should follow suit. That would be 'international acclaim' for 'NZ's insightful initiative' wouldn't it!

Stop playing with words. Look at outcomes. And however you like to describe it outcomes today, despite the huge amounts of money being flushed down the toilet of modern education, are woeful. Don't bother to ask someone in the education industry to tell you the truth, though, as all you'll get are weasel words to cover up for the last 3 decades of decline.

Ask instead anyone who has to recruit school and college leavers. Then you'll get the real view from the sharp end. It ain't pretty.

Welcome to the educational world South Island! We have been waiting for you to catch up... Innovation and inspiration from the adults in a learning community engages children which provides the ideal platform for learning. The New Zealand Curriculum has been acclaimed internationally as the most exciting educational document of its kind because for the first time the child is at the centre of every educational decision. The challenge for adults at having children at the centre means that we have to do things differently and change is hard. No longer do we do things 'to' children we do things 'with' children so they can eventually 'do' for themselves and 'do' for society. Remarkables Primary has hit the mark...we will be watching you for future innovations and leadership within the field of education. Intentionally Queenstown is the place to go and tourism has embraced innovation and leadership - lets hope the Wakatipu Basin expects and celebrates the same forward thinking in its newest primary school.

This dribble has no relevance in the real world, do they really think primary students give a crap about their job title. I wonder how much time (that we pay for) they wasted on this. Could have been put to better use.

I can't help feeling that the Year 7 and 8 students (refer to message 63: Room 1 at 02:35 pm Dec 08 2009) are displaying more maturity and common sense than the truly 'unremarkable adults' who have formulated all this nonsense............

Utterly pathetic. Just get on with your jobs!

Yours,

Duncan Chief Executive Officer of Pointing out Stupidity

Ah yes, great to see the tall poppies being cut down before they get a chance to show what they're worth. It is the Kiwi way after all, isn't it?

All the best to the teachers and other staff at the new school in Arrowtown! It sounds like they've taken some time to consider the values of the community that the school will fit into and it's great to see them taking the opportunity to mold and shape the school into a fun place for kids to learn the fundamental skills they'll need to succeed.

Oh come on all those taking this so seriously? How exactly is this "socialist" Ian McKinnon??? That's like saying "I can't believe they are going to factory farm cows, what socialist crap". Let's attribute any change to socialism - a theory of economic organisation. Good one.

It's some job titles that sound a bit more positive than the current ones. Get over it.

I am in agreeance with many, I like the ideas and the originality. I loved school because of some fabulous teachers that weren't your typical. Yes they are there to teach but it is now a very different world from when we were young with many different conflicts to that time. Time will tell as to how successful it will be and I wish Remarkables Primary School all the best.

@another local #61 - to answer your 2 questions, it depends if anyone is getting paid to waste their time coming up with this rubbish. If my taxes are being wasted for the staff to get together and come up with this rubbish, then it affects me. Also, from my own experience, the primary education in this country is of a low standard. As to your other question, yes I care about Kiwi kids and would love it if anywhere near as much effort went into improving the education and knowledge of our children as it took to come up with pompous titles for so-called educators (although I guess they have given themselves the title of expedition leader, so there is no expectation that they will teach anything).