Simon Bridges National MP simonbridges.co.nz

I want to start this week by recognising the now legendary Tauranga Police Charity luncheon that was held at the TECT Arena a couple of weeks back.

A whopping $266,000 was raised for some great causes including New Zeal Foundation, which does good work with youth, and Alzheimers NZ Tauranga. Personally I'm not aware of any other single event in New Zealand that raises this much for its community.

Detective Pete Blackwell, or ‘Blackie', and his team do a magnificent job each year. We are all grateful to them. It is gratifying to see so much generosity when business conditions are tougher than normal.

Lifting achievement in our schools

We have an education system that is among the best in the world. It gives our students a platform to compete here and internationally.

Four out of five kids are successfully getting the qualifications they need, and we must celebrate their success and the professionals in our system who make that possible every day. But National's education plan is about getting five out of five.

To achieve that we've set an ambitious better public services target of 85 per cent of 18 year olds achieving NCEA Level 2 or equivalent in 2017.

This is the first year we have reported the results of all 18 year olds and we are delighted that 74.3 per cent attained NCEA Level 2 or an equivalent qualification last year.

At school level, nearly 72 per cent of school leavers achieved at least NCEA Level 2, compared with 66.4 per cent in 2009.

Also 51 per cent of Maori students achieved NCEA Level 2 in 2011, up from 44 per cent in 2009, and Pasifika achievement has risen from 55.7 per cent to just over 63 per cent.

These are great results, but we still need to work harder to ensure all children leave school with the skills they need to reach their potential.

Until now we've had to rely only on NCEA data – at the end of compulsory schooling – to provide us with a picture of our education system. The introduction of National Standards has allowed us to support all learners and target those who are falling behind much earlier and give them the help they need.

The information gained from this first set of National Standards data is powerful for identifying and providing support for all learners.

Schools have put considerable effort into their reporting of National Standards and we'd like to thank them for the work they've done in this. It helps to raise achievement for all learners.

National Standards data is now available online at www.educationcounts.govt.nz For parents to get a complete picture of their child's school they need to look at schools' ERO and annual reports - also available on the Education Counts website. They also need to talk to principals, teachers, schools trustees and other parents.

The Education Review Office has also produced a booklet to help parents ask schools about how their child is doing. It is available at http://www.ero.govt.nz/Review-Process/For-Parents/ERO-Guides-for-Parents/How-is-my-child-doing-Questions-to-ask-at-school