The government launched its "Make it count" maths action plan on Sunday.
It aims to have 80% of year 8 pupils above the expected curriculum level by 2030.
A new year 0-8 maths curriculum, details of which will be released next week, will be introduced in term one next year.
Halfway Bush School deputy principal Janelle Shaw said she considered her school to be "ahead of the game" as, in 2021, it had introduced a literacy programme and, in 2023, a maths curriculum from Singapore which, she believed, was similar to the maths syllabus the government was proposing.
It was also in its third year of implementing a structured literacy programme.
After an initial year-long trial, they could see it was working and the school, with the support of its board, decided to continue with the programme and upskill staff using its own funds.
After three years of full implementation in the school "it’s only now we’re seeing the results", she said.
The programmes meant teachers could identify pupils who needed extra support with a "tier two intervention".
Whether the programmes were effective would come down to funding those tier two interventions.
"Identifying [the pupils who need the extra support] doesn’t change their results."
Support from a learning assistant or a specialised interventions teacher was a necessity for the programme to be successful.
Other factors that affected a child’s learning including neurodiversity, home factors and trauma had not been addressed by the government either, Ms Shaw said.
But the main issue in the short term was other schools were facing completely new pedagogy for teaching literacy and maths that teachers would have never encountered before.
"It can be quite confronting for a teacher like me, who has been teaching for 25 years, to understand what they have been doing so far does not work and to learn a completely new pedagogy.
"Everything is coming so quickly without much acknowledgement or sharing with teachers."
When the 43-pupil school began introducing the overseas model for maths, there was not a lot of professional development for it to access.
She had concerns about how the government, which has put $20 million aside for professional development, was going to manage it so all primary school teachers had access to it.
"It’s sort of a mixed bag because I think the programme the government is looking at is on the right track and from what we’ve done structured literacy does work."
The implementation timeframe was the concern and when schools failed to implement it properly or successfully it would look like it did not work, she said.
Green Island School principal Aaron Warrington said he understood the urgency of the government, but he was also worried asking teachers to do structured literacy and maths so soon was going to put them under stress.
His school was not doing either programme yet.
"If we try and do both at the same time, one is going to supersede the other, isn’t it."
He said learning the two pedagogies would add to the burnout teachers already experienced.
"They’ll do it, but at the detriment of their own health."
Mr Warrington said he was also concerned some of the good practice that was working would get "trashed" and be replaced.
The principal's union New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa Otago convenor Stephanie Madden said there was urgency in raising achievement in maths across the education system, but the changes to the curriculum needed to be implemented well.
"I am incredibly worried about the pressure being placed on teachers to implement major shifts in teaching pedagogy across both literacy and mathematics in such a short space of time."
