Budget 2025#

Investing in improved attendance#

The Government has recently announced an investment of almost $140 million over the next four years to improve student attendance. This includes $123 million for the delivery of a new attendance service and almost $17million to support and strengthen front-line attendance services.

New front-line attendance services will include comprehensive local attendance services funded to reach double the current number of chronically absent and non-enrolled students, and an option of some in-school provision for schools with very high numbers of chronically absent students. The new services will be in place by early 2026.

Some changes have been made to attendance service catchment areas so that they are big enough to be viable and small enough to be local. The provisional catchment areas are available for your review and feedback until 25 May at:

Attendance service reform – provisional service catchment review

Referral to the new attendance services will be a core part of the support available for students who have reached chronic levels of absence (the red ‘serious concern’ threshold category in the Stepped Attendance Response, or STAR):

Stepped attendance response – STAR

We have written to all current attendance service providers to advise them of the changes, and the implications for them. We will continue to update schools (via the Bulletin) and providers as further details become available.

Strengthening maths and pāngarau#

The Minister of Education Hon Erica Stanford has announced a major Budget 2025 investment of almost $100 million over the next four years to lift maths and pāngarau achievement. The package includes:

• An early maths and pāngarau check at the end of Year 2 to identify learning needs early and provide timely support.
• Targeted intervention teachers 143 FTTE (Years 0 to 6) to deliver targeted, evidence-based teaching to accelerate learner progress in maths and pāngarau. This staffing will be allocated across schools and kura.
• Targeted support for up to 34,000 Year 7 to 8 students annually who are not yet at curriculum level. Students will be supported in small groups using a digital learning platform.

You can find more information about the initiatives here:

Budget 2025: investing in students’ maths and pāngarau achievement [PDF, 100 KB]

Attendance, achievement and assessment#

Supporting attendance during winter#

Regular school attendance is vital for learning, social development, and overall wellbeing. As we enter the winter, there will naturally be times when it is appropriate for tamariki to stay home and recover from illness.

However, minor symptoms do not always require time away from school. Below is a link to information that will help parents and caregivers decide when it is okay to send their child to school, when they should keep them at home and when they should contact a health professional for advice.

Knowing if your child is well enough to go to school – Health New Zealand

2027 and 2028 term dates#

The Minister of Education Hon Erica Stanford has now set the terms, holidays and cohort entry dates for 2027 and 2028. They can be found on our school terms and holidays date page here:

School terms and holidays dates

Sabbaticals 2026 applications#

The applications for all 2026 sabbaticals for teachers, principals and kindergarten head teachers open on 3 June and close 30 June. For more information about eligibility and how to apply, visit:  

Sabbaticals, study awards and study grants – Education Workforce  

Any pātai, email [email protected].  

Inspiring the Future programme#

This free programme connects your students | ākonga with role models from the world of work during interactive sessions. It encourages students to explore future possibilities and challenge job-related stereotypes.

It’s easy to set up and aligned with the curriculum and attendance initiatives.

Contact the Inspiring the Future team to talk about how to make it work for your school.

Inspiring the Future Aotearoa – Tertiary Education Commission

Matavai Pacific e-newsletter launched#

Matavai is our new monthly e-newsletter offering key updates, Pacific education stories and details of upcoming events. Share this with Pacific parents and communities.

To subscribe and read the latest issues, visit:

Subscribe to Matavai Pacific e-newsletter – Mailchimp

Bulletins and newsletters

Health, safety and wellbeing#

Linseed oil rags safety alert#

Linseed oil rags stored incorrectly can catch fire and cause extensive damage. A reminder to:

• store rags in a non-combustible container (metal) with a close-fitting lid, away from school buildings and other combustible materials
• allow rags to dry completely in a safe place. The best way to achieve this is to lay the rags out flat on a concrete driveway until completely dry.

Rags soaked with linseed oil may smoulder for several hours before flames are visible.

More information on the hazards of linseed oil is available at:

Issue 23 The hazards of linseed oil – New Zealand Fire Service [PDF, 554 KB]

Workforce and resourcing#

Holidays Act remediation payments for former school employees#

We are contacting former school employees owed an initial estimate payment towards Holidays Act arrears, starting with those owed most. Payments will begin 24 June and continue as we contact former employees to confirm details.

A small number of current employees (identified as former employees for previous initial estimate payments) will also receive a payment along with their normal pay on 10 June.   
No action is required from you to support these payments and there will be no impact on your school budget.

Find out more at:

Holidays Act initial estimate payments

If you receive any queries from current or former employees, or have any queries, send them to [email protected]. Alternatively, call 0800 439 333 (8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday).

Circular 2025/01: Initiation of bargaining notice for area teachers and primary principals#

Circular 2025/01 has been published on our website and is about the initiation of bargaining for the renewal of two collective agreements:

• Primary Principals’ Collective Agreement (PPCBU)
• Area School Teachers’ Collective Agreement.

Employers must let employees who may be covered by any of these collective agreements know about the upcoming bargaining. We have published a circular with information about this, and it includes notices to provide to affected employees:

Education Circular 2025/01

If you have any questions about this, contact Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa | NZ School Boards Association Advisory Support Centre on 0800 782 435 or email [email protected].

June roll return#

This roll return is for state and state-integrated schools with students | ākonga in Year 9 and above only. The roll count date is 30 May and is due on 6 June.

There is no change to the process of generating your roll return. Send us the file from your student management system (SMS).

If you have a teacher-only day on 30 May you do not need to take any extra steps, so you can run your return as normal.

Any queries about the process, email [email protected].

Governance, planning and infrastructure#

Sponsors for state schools converting to charter schools#

If you are a state or state-integrated school considering conversion to a charter school, this is an ongoing process. The first step is an expression of interest that you can complete at any time. You can get in touch with the Charter School Agency if you have any questions at [email protected].

If you are considering converting to a charter school but don’t have a sponsor, please get in touch. We have been approached by sponsors keen to take on the key responsibilities of operating a school. These tasks include staffing, curriculum, management of school property, student enrolment and financial management. Having a competent sponsor in place means the school leadership can focus on their core functions of teaching and learning.

There’s more information on the Charter School Agency website at:

Converting schools – Charter School Agency

Ministry-wide information security classifications policy#

We have adopted a new information security classifications policy as part of Government-wide protective security requirements.

All Ministry emails and documents will now include protective markings (for example, unclassified, in-confidence – release external, sensitive – release external) so that information is appropriately handled.

You may see markings added to information we receive from you, or be contacted so we can check what we receive from you is necessary.

While no action is required from you, we encourage considering the sensitivity of any information you share with us.

For more details about protective markings, visit:

Overview of the classification system – Protective Security Requirements

The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No. 2) and 2026–2028 strategic plans#

The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 2) (ETAB 2) passed its First Reading on 14 May.

It includes a range of proposals such as:

• amendments to school board objectives under section 127 of the Act
• removal of the Minister’s power to issue a statement of national education and learning priorities
• allowing for a longer notification period required for school strikes
• requiring boards to have attendance management plans
• requiring universities to have a statement on freedom of expression.

Minister of Education Hon Erica Stanford is also considering changes to the Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2023 to align with the proposed changes to school board objectives. As part of this, the Minister is considering a short extension to the due date for the 2026–2028 Strategic Plan to give boards a little more time to develop their strategic plans. We will provide more information on any proposed changes to the Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations in the coming months.

For more information on ETAB 2 and its proposals, visit:

Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 2) – New Zealand Parliament

Submissions on the Bill are open until 12 June, and you can make a submission here:

Make a submission – New Zealand Parliament

Recalculation of classroom release time for permanent unit holders#

We have recalculated 2025 classroom release time (CRT) for permanent unit holders staffing, using year-to-date 2025 payroll data.

Last year, we calculated your school’s 2025 provisional allocation of CRT for permanent unit holders using full-year 2023 payroll data. We advised you that we would review your school’s CRT allocation in April this year and update it if required.

The 2025 provisional calculation incorrectly included fixed term holders as well as permanent unit holders, therefore you may have received a higher amount of CRT than you were entitled to. We have included only permanent unit holders in the recalculation, as provided for in the Primary and Area School Teachers’ Collective Agreements. Because your CRT is the greater of the provisional CRT and the updated calculation, your CRT may remain as the provisional allocation.

Those who have received additional CRT as a result of the updated calculation will have received an automatic email from Pourato on 8 May. You can see your CRT for permanent unit holders staffing under ‘additional staffing’ under the ‘staffing’ tab in Pourato.

Information about CRT for permanent unit holders can be found on our website:

Classroom release time for permanent unit holders

If you have any questions, email [email protected].

Guide to buying goods and services for a school#

We have recently developed a guide, containing good practice information on buying goods and services for a school. The guide explains key buying concepts and considerations and has high-level step-by-step guidance for running a competitive buying process to achieve value for money.

Buying Goods and Services for a School – A High-level Good Practice Guide [PDF, 1.145 MB]

This guide can also be found at:

Buying for your school

If you have any queries, contact [email protected].