Lee DeniseDENISE LEE (National—Maungakiekie): Thank you Madam Chair. I would like to thank the Education and Workforce Committee for the annual review period that we went through—of course my first as a new MP. I'd like to highlight two things that we discussed and that are part of course of this appropriation debate that we are having this afternoon. One of those things directly contrasts with some of what the previous speaker Jan Tinetti has just said and it was a moment for me when the Secretary for Education upon being asked how many of the 16 communities of learning the COLs that have achieved their achievement challenges will be keeping national standards confirmed that it was all of them—all 16 of them. So for something that sounds so disastrous that's a really interesting stat right there.But what I want to talk about this afternoon is the Education Review Office (ERO) report on partnership schools. The ERO came to our committee and they reported on a few things but one of us asked: What are your findings on partnership schools?" They said that it was a little bit too early to tell but promised to get back to us as a committee and that they did. So what I'm about to speak on—much of it is verbatim. I'm reading out what they've written to us about their reviews of partnership schools specifically their most latest round. They've had two rounds; term 3 last year 2017. So they've said that baseline data appears to show that many students enter these schools well below curriculum expectations and there's evidence to show that the cohort of students attending these schools are students where their needs have and I'm quoting here "not been well met by mainstream schools" or "who have not been regularly attending school." So of the schools currently operating what ERO found out is that all schools are catering for priority learners—all schools are catering for priority learners. The proportion of Māori or Pacific students is 100 percent or very close to that in all schools.Here we go again: all schools are meeting the requirement for the percentage of the curriculum to be taught by a registered teacher with a current practising certificate—all schools. Here's the next thing from the ERO. It said that the schools are providing a settled calm learning environment for the students who come with a wide range of often not very positive educational experiences.Here we go again. The students that ERO spoke with were very positive. How positive? They were very positive about the support and encouragement provided by the teachers and they expressed pride in their new school. How positive? Very positive. And finally all schools are working hard to monitor student attendance and engagement in learning. How hard? Very hard.Two more points as I finish up. Several schools and I'm quoting again from the ERO "are changing the school day in terms of time and core learning areas and time for students to follow their own interests and abilities. There is an emphasis on establishing a school culture that supports students to succeed." That's what the ERO said. So what is the problem here? This is what they are saying about partnership schools. So take it in—take it in: "All schools are committed to meeting the individual academic and well-being needs of priority learners"—not just all students priority learners. The Government has called partnership schools an ideological experiment but closing them is clearly a pragmatic one on their part and what I have just read out this afternoon is a pragmatic response from none other than the Education Review Office. None of that sounded disastrous did it? That is what we discovered during our annual review and it's time for the other side to make a pragmatic response to undo their ideological one."