A school principal says schools need more resources to support students, not mandatory tests.

The Government's introducing phonics checks for primary pupils after 20 weeks of schooling and repeated at 40 weeks.  

Twice yearly progression monitoring on reading, writing, and maths will also be introduced for children in Years 3 through 8.  

Auckland's May Road School principal Lynda Stuart told Mike Hosking there are some children that those tests don't work for.  

She says some have English as a second language and need more support in that area, and some have high anxiety with assessments. 

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