Information sheet: IES

Investing an extra $359m in funding over four years, and $155m a year after that, to help raise student achievement. Investing in Educational Success (IES) will:

• give children and young people throughout New Zealand a better education by lifting student achievement
• create new career opportunities for teachers and principals
• help ensure quality teaching and leadership can be shared across all schools
• encourage collaborative practice across schools.

NZ schools are being provided with the resources to enable:

• about 250 Communities of around ten schools (covering all children in NZ)
• about 250 principals coordinating action to meet Community goals
• about 1,000 teachers (1 in 50 teachers) working throughout the Communities to strengthen teaching practice
• about 5,000 teachers (1 in 10 teachers) sharing and supporting good practice with their colleagues
• about 250,000 hours for teachers to mentor and learn from each other
• about 20 strugglingof our most high-needs schools a year receiving approval to advertise with a new allowance to help recruit an experienced principal
• there is also $10 million for teacher-led research to develop and share innovative teaching ideas.

Here’s how it works

• groups of schools form their own Communities of Learningof Schools and decide together on their achievement challenges
• school Boards of Trustees choose whether to take part – no school will have to join a Community of LearningSchools
• Communities of Learningof Schools use their shared information to set goals which will help lift student achievement by setting achievement challenges specific to their schools needs
• schools share their most effective teachers and leaders to meet these goals
• resources are provided to support teachers and principals to collaborate.

It’s good for children

• all children will benefit from the skills and knowledge of effective teachers from across a whole Community of LearningSchools
• teachers will work together to meet each Community of Learning’sSchools’ learning goals and raise achievement
• primary and secondary schools will work together to support stronger transitions for children as they progress through their schooling.

It’s good for teachers and principals

• the new roles give teachers and principals further career development opportunities e.g. new opportunities for deputy and assistant principals to step up, and to strengthen team leadership
• schools are funded to release staff for these roles and for other teachers to learn from each other and to investigate practice to improve
• teachers, principals and Boards have helped shape Investing in Educational Success.
• as of June 2015 there are 29 Communities of Schools, involving 220 schools, who are currently working on their achievement challenges, with more Communities to come in 2015
• over 80,000 students across New Zealand are covered by these Communities of LearningSchools