I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Erica Stanford is this Government's MVP.

Once again, she is taking an inexplicably stupid thing in schools, ditching it, and going back to common sense.

This is something close to my heart at the moment because I have to make a decision in the next six months or so about which school we send our son to.

But I’ve basically already made the decision, and it will be the one school in the area that has single classes instead of open plan, modern learning spaces.

It’s the school his best friend from kindy is now going to. It’s also the school another parent I know has just sent their child to.

All of us are doing it for the same reason: we want to avoid open plan learning spaces.

We know, like most parents know, that if you stick a hundred kids in a big room and tell them to pay attention to the teacher in front of them, they can’t.

They get distracted by the loud noises coming from the other kids over there.

Why the Ministry of Education forced this in schools will probably baffle me for the rest of my life, because there is no logic to it.

No one who has kids, or spends time with kids, can really believe kids can concentrate and learn with 100 voices chirping all the time.

Which idiot came up with this? I’d love to know.

I tell you what, the legacy of this Government could well be that it finally turns around our up-to-now decades long decline in education stats.

That, along with the ban on phones in schools, and the hour a day of reading writing and maths, and the expectation that kids must pass existing standards, actually gives our kids a chance to learn as well as kids in any other developed country, like we used to.

And if that is what happens, given how crucial education is to a country’s success, Erica Stanford will remain as I see her:

The MVP of this Government, if not of the decade.

Or, of this generation.

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After more than ten years in the musical game, Lachie Hayes has released his sophomore album.

The Kiwi musician hails from the deepest of the deep south, blending rural blues, alt-folk-country, and soul rock to deliver a new wave of alt-country music.

‘Subsatellite’ is an eleven-track album, produced by prolific musician and producer Delaney Davidson, filled with the colourful stories of ordinary people.

He joined Heather du Plessis-Allan for a chat about the rising popularity of country music and where his career is headed next.

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Could Roger Tuivasa-Sheck make another code switch in 2027?

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the Warriors great is a target of the proposed Rugby360 competition for when he comes off contract after next season.

The newspaper estimates the value of the offer at over one million dollars per season – double what Tuivasa-Sheck is currently earning with the Warriors.

Former Kiwis Captain Richie Barnett told Heather du Plessis-Allan this is a massive threat to the NRL.

He says they’ve always had to contend with competitions trying to recruit across codes, but the money and consortiums that are coming up now have too big a pool of money to say no to.

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