27.4.1 Health and Physical Education
In the Health and Physical Education (HPE) area, Powell ( 2015 ) points to the ways
New Zealand primary teachers and principals are encouraged to choose from an
ever-increasing range of curricula and programmes provided by corporations (e.g.
McDonald’s, Honda, Macleans) and industry groups (e.g. United Fresh New
Zealand Inc.), as well as charities and other‘not-for-profit’organisations (such as
‘pokies’gambling trusts). Powell undertook qualitative research in three Auckland
primary schools and shows how outsourcing teaching and curriculum saw teachers
and principals inadvertently supporting the increased privatisation of education
despite being opposed to GERM. He provides numerous examples of teachers
justifying the marketing of products and services to schools:
Obviously [corporations are] going to make dough out of [school-based programmes and
resources] too, but if that’s their prime purpose, well, we will see through it and wouldn’t
have them anyway. If it’s only just for them, um, but if it’s beneficial for kids, that’s what
it’s got to be about, you know. Simple as that. (Dudley School principal, cited in Powell
2015 , p. 103)
Well, we have an expert to teach. It’s a focus on that particular sport, and they can break
down the skills probably better than [the teacher]...And a lot of the teachers don’t have the
skills nowadays, or the time to prepare what they should do, like in the old days they used
to. (St Saviour’s School teacher, cited in Powell 2015 , p. 123)Overall Powell’s work illustrates that HPE in schools is a kind of‘Trojan Horse’of
privatisation where corporations and their associated charities can get involved
quite easily and where education reform is being made possible from the‘inside
out’through the roles played by teachers and principals.
27.4.2 National Standards
New Zealand’s National Standards were launched in October 2009 and involve
schools making and reporting judgements about the reading, writing and mathe-
matics achievement of primary aged children. These judgements are made annually
against a four-point scale (‘above’,‘at’,‘below’,or‘well below’the standard).^3 The
policy matches existing curriculum levels (and associated numeracy stages and
literacy progressions) to these assessment times. This means that teachers are
supposed to consider children’s achievement against what is required for the cur-
riculum levels, and use that understanding for making Overall Teacher Judgements
(OTJs) about achievement against the National Standards. Since 2012, the results
have been reported publicly (previously there was no public release of primary
(^3) Judgements take place after one, two or three years at school in the junior school and then at the
end of each year level in years 4–8.
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