Keep Up Weekly: School sports, trades, AI, and oh my

Hello! 

So, I’ve been struggling to keep up with my own kids these past few weeks, let alone this project. I’m working school hours at the moment — I blink and the workday is over, and then I’m taxiing the kids to their various afterschool activities, making dinner, helping with homework, breaking up fights, answering dozens of questions about how things work (but why, mummy?), trying to keep on top of laundry and other life admin, soothing various meltdowns, surrendering to the snail’s pace of my daughter’s bedtime routine… 

It’s a lot. 

Parenting has always felt like a lot, but this season feels particularly intense. My daughter is in Year 3, which is a big step up from junior school life. She’s playing a team sport for the first time and getting real, actual homework. There are training sessions and game days and words of the week and basic facts and special excursions and apps to download and comms to read and I never feel like I’m truly on top of everything. I’m grateful that she brings big eldest daughter/granddaughter energy, so she almost always knows where she needs to be and when, despite me regularly needing to double check the calendar three times to make sure I’m driving to the right place, at the right time. Is number/date blindness a thing? Because I think I might have it — or am I just a tired parent? The million dollar question!

Anyway. The world keeps spinning, and there’s been plenty going on while I’ve been hunkering down on the home front. Here's what I've been reading/watching to help me Keep Up With The Kids. 

NZ NEWS

Principals stunned as ministry looks for new maths, reading tests (RNZ)

Hyperbolic headline, but worth a read to understand the new request for providers (RFP) issued by the Education Ministry. The Ministry is looking for a standardised assessment tool that schools can use twice a year to test children (years 3-10) in reading, writing, and maths. 

Principals Federation president Leanne Otene told RNZ that principals were comfortable using existing testing systems and was concerned that a new system might be designed by an overseas company with no knowledge of New Zealand’s unique culture.

Report calls for a trades entrance qualification to rival University Entrance (RNZ)

A report led by Dr Michael Johnston, a researcher for The New Zealand Initiative, makes the case for introducing a new ‘trades entrance’ qualification in secondary schools. Johnston says this might help students see trades careers in a new light. “At root, the problem is cultural. We just esteem university education much more highly than apprenticeship training and for no good reason. Trades people can earn great money and there’s no reason why an arts degree, for example, should be seen as better than an electrical qualification or a plumbing qualification.” (I think I agree, but as an Arts graduate, I feel personally attacked 😂) 

GLOBAL-ISH NEWS

Will AI cost us the earth? (School News)

Another very dramatic headline, but worth a read — School News explains the environmental cost of using AI and poses the question: how should schools approach AI use in the classroom? 

What Trump’s dismantling of the US Education Department means (1 News)

This is a very brief, at a glance explanation of Trump’s executive order to shut down the US Education Department. Useful to get a quick sense of what’s happening right now.

COMING UP NEXT WEEK

• What in the world is The Code?
• I’ll share my thoughts on Adolescence, the Netflix drama that has everyone talking
• 5 things I’ve learned about learning since returning to night school (I’m taking weekly French lessons)

Signing off with this reel, which apparently is how the teens talk these days? I’m not sure whether to feel proud or embarrassed that I use some of these phrases, ha! 

As always, thanks for reading. If you find this content useful, please share it with your friends and family — your support helps me keep going.