Kia ora koutou,
I want to thank all of you who have implemented your phones away for the day policies. For those working with their communities to introduce or update an existing policy, your local Te Mahau office can help if you have any questions prior to implementation at the beginning of Term 2.
Meanwhile, and excluding those who have been given additional time, those of you with ākonga in Years 0 to 8 are spending an average of at least an hour a day of reading, writing and maths or pānui, tuhituhi, and pāngarau.
I’m always interested to hear how we can do better with the resources and support we provide to you, so as you are refreshing policies and implementing new ones, please send your experience and views about what has worked (and not) in your context.
Mauri ora
Iona
Protect against measles
Last year there were 13 cases in New Zealand. Please encourage your school communities to follow Ministry of Health advice, particularly that the best protection against measles is two doses of the MMR vaccine.
Find out more about the MMR vaccine:
Measles, mumps and rubella vaccine – Immunise.health.nz
For more information about measles visit:
Schools as immunisation hubs
If your board wants your school to become an immunisation hub to offer on-site immunisation services to your community, the National Public Health Service at Te Whatu Ora can help you organise this.
Email [email protected] for advice and assistance.
Student attendance
Attendance is the first step in accessing learning, achieving education success, and improving wellbeing and lifelong outcomes.
For too long, the number of students attending school regularly has not been good enough. Parents and caregivers are required to have their children attend school, and help students develop habits of regular attendance. There are also clear requirements and expectations for schools to get students back to attending regularly.
Resources are available to support your school to review attendance processes, build staff knowledge, and provide clear and consistent messaging to parents through content for newsletters and presentations.
Student attendance: Guide for schools and kura
Student attendance: Guide for parents and caregivers
Existing support for attendance including the attendance service and the regional response fund are in place and remain available to schools and kura, parents and caregivers.
Clarifying your ‘one hour a day’ requirements
The regulatory requirements for the new ‘one hour a day’ policy set a daily minimum amount of time to be spent on reading, writing and maths | pānui, tuhituhi, and pāngarau, which is:
‘Ten hours a week of teaching and learning focused on supporting their progress and achievement in reading and writing in a typical school week’ and ‘five hours a week of teaching and learning focused on supporting their progress and achievement in maths in a typical school week’.
This can be achieved by teaching reading, writing and maths for an average of ‘one hour a day’ each over the course of a typical week to help students | ākonga master the basics, improve engagement in classrooms, and strengthen curriculum delivery.
Go to Tāhūrangi for the list of current resources:
New ‘one hour a day’ education policy from the start of 2024 – Tāhūrangi
Phones away for the day
Our most recent resource is school newsletter templates to support the implementation of phone rules in your school.
Our remaining resources to be published on our website this month are the FAQs and editable posters in multiple languages that may support ākonga and whānau to understand the rules.
2023 annual financial reporting
Our website has information and guidance to help you prepare your report, including the Kiwi Park model financial statements and key dates.
Kiwi Park model financial statements
We have also updated the following guidance materials for the 2023 financial year end:
Annual reporting guidance to prepare and submit your annual report:
Annual financial statements reporting guidance:
School annual financial statements
Annual payroll guidance:
Annual reporting guidelines: Accounting for school payroll [PDF, 551 KB]
Our school finance advisors are available to support you if you have any questions or concerns about your financial reporting.
Talanoa ako: Pacific talk about education and learning
These two programmes support Pacific attendance, engagement and achievement:
Talanoa ako: Pacific talk about education and learning professional development for teachers: 12 sessions including teaching practices, evidence, Action Plan for Pacific Education.
Fakailoga tino: Professional development for schools – understanding racism in the sector: Supporting teachers to name, negotiate and navigate racism in schools.
If you are interested in delivering one of these programmes please contact [email protected].
More information is available on Tāhūrangi:
Teacher Education Refresh
The Teacher Education Refresh (TER) programme brings teachers’ knowledge back up to date and gets them back into the classroom after an extended period away.
To support people through this process, some TER courses are designed to be completed on a fast-track basis incorporating in-centre or school observation for those teachers already employed in a teaching role on a permanent or fixed term basis.
TER programme fees for eligible teachers are currently fully paid by the Government and the Teaching Council can provide many teachers with an extension to teach for their practising certificate, which allows them to continue in paid employment as a teacher while they complete the TER programme on a part-time basis.
More information is available on the Teaching Council website:
Teacher refresh process – Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand
Creating social cohesion in schools’ guidance
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata | The Human Rights Commission has published guidance online for schools on social cohesion. The following guidance outlines how to create environments that foster safe and inclusive practices for students, and ensures diversity is accepted and celebrated through positive relationships and students feeling that they belong:
Social cohesion for schools – Human Rights Commission
Early Reading® and Reading Together® programme applications on hold
New applications for these programmes are temporarily on hold. We will advise the re-opening dates for new applications in due course.
For more information, email [email protected].
Cultural leadership allowance – Primary and area schools
A limited number of cultural leadership allowances have been introduced as part of the recent settlements for primary and area school teachers. Along with NZEI Te Riu Roa and PPTA Te Wehengarua, we have agreed the eligibility requirements, matrix for assessment and allocation process to distribute these allowances.
Eligible primary schools and all area schools have been contacted directly about the process to allocate the allowance.
Further information can be found on our website:
Cultural Leadership, MITA and PBITA – Ministry of Education
Professional development
Tātai Aho Rau Core Education has support for provisionally certificated and overseas trained teachers and their mentors in English and Māori medium settings. This includes digital resources, interactive webinars, mentoring workshops and one-on-one follow up support if needed.
Find out more here:
Support for PCTs, OTTs, and their mentors – Tātai Aho Rau Core Education
New method for socioeconomic reporting in our data
When we report data about the education system, it is important that we can show how outcomes look for learners with different socioeconomic circumstances.
Our reports and data releases will now use school equity index bands and groups for socioeconomic reporting. These are two new ways of grouping schools into broad socioeconomic categories, based on the schooling equity index.
School equity index bands and groups are only useful for aggregate reporting – reporting that summarises data on many schools – so we do not intend to publicise the band or group of individual schools.
Student wellbeing measures survey
Informed by over 9,500 student | ākonga voices gathered in 2021, we are developing a NZ-relevant, universal set of ākonga wellbeing statements for a tool for Years 7 to 13 and above. The tool will provide you with regular data on the wellbeing of ākonga at your school | kura.
To help inform resources to accompany the tool, we invite you to complete this 10-minute survey:
For a report on our findings visit:
Understanding student wellbeing in the educational setting – Education Counts
For more information, email [email protected].
