Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is set to front the media this afternoon at a primary school after major announcements to the maths curriculum this week.

He will be joined by Education Minister Erica Stanford at Ridgway Primary School in Wellington and talk to media at 1.45pm.

It comes after the Government announced an “overhaul” of the Education Review Office’s reporting on schools as part of an effort to lift school standards in maths.

Schools that need extra help will face intervention from the Ministry of Education “earlier and more often” than currently, according to Stanford.

Stanford announced the change today as part of a blitz of policy announcements, begun at the weekend and aimed at lifting maths achievement.

“The Ministry of Education will intervene earlier and more often in schools which need extra support. The ministry will sharpen its approach to intervening in schools when student achievement is at risk, redirecting and targeting resources to schools with inadequate student achievement,” Stanford said.

“There will be an overhaul of the Education Review Office’s reporting, so it is focused on progress, achievement and assessment. There will also be clearer reporting to parents on what schools are getting right and what they aren’t.”

Stanford announced a suite of curriculum and workforce changes to lift maths performance.

These include introducing a new Years 0-8 maths curriculum a year early, from Term 1 2025, with resources available to support teachers. She said the Teaching Council had agreed to lift maths entry requirements for new teachers and that $20 million had been set aside for professional development in structured maths for teachers.

Stanford said data on performance had previously been hidden from parents. She promised clearer reporting for parents.

New reporting from the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study published on Monday showed that in maths, just 22% of students at Year 8 were meeting curriculum expectations.

This figure was 28% at Year 6, and 20% at Year 3. Curriculum Insights is an update on the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA). It assessed a nationally representative sample of students at Years 3, 6 and 8 from English-medium state and state-integrated schools in reading and maths.