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What the network of schools is#
The network of schools is all schools in New Zealand that we fund. It is made up of smaller regional networks of schools.
New Zealand's network of schools
The school network is part of New Zealand’s education system. It includes every New Zealand school.
Te kōtuinga kura o Aotearoa
Ko te kōtuinga kura he wāhanga nō te pūnaha mātauranga o Aotearoa. Kei roto ngā kura katoa o Aotearoa i te pūnaha nei.
Read about different types of schools in the network.
Primary and secondary education
Education Counts has a map of the regions and information about each school.
Know your region – Education Counts
We manage and plan the network and make schooling changes to make sure that students have access to appropriate education pathways. Changes could include:
- putting in an enrolment scheme
- adding classrooms for roll growth
- changing the year levels at a school
- opening and closing schools.
We run regular consultations about network changes.
Consulting communities about changes to schools
Planning the network#
We manage school networks nationwide using a range of data including:
- population projections
- planned housing developments
- census data
- local council information
- school utilisation and capacity
- enrolment data
- other local factors.
We monitor residential developments to understand location, scale and phasing so we can project how many students might move into an area. We also consider house sales data, property prices, transport links and a range of other factors in our planning.
Catchment planning#
We have divided the network of schools into 119 catchments across the country. Each catchment has its own growth profile.
We use the latest school-aged population projections from Stats NZ to forecast demand in each catchment.
Longer term planning signals our direction to the wider community, including:
- government agencies
- local government
- infrastructure and service providers.
Catchment plans support conversations about long-term planning and investment with these stakeholders and drive greater collaboration and joined up planning.
Key documents#
Our foundational planning documents outline the current state of the network of schools across our 10 education regions and 119 catchments.
The National Education Network Plan (NENP), which includes the National Education Growth Plan (NEGP), together with the Māori-medium network planning and specialist learning support network planning currently underway, creates a ‘family’ of strategic foundation planning documents.
These are iterative, dynamic documents which are regularly refreshed and refined as forecasts and situations change.
National Education Growth Plan#
The National Education Growth Plan (NEGP) was released in 2019 and updated in 2022. It identifies how we plan to manage growth across the 39 highest-growth catchments.
It underpins Te Rautaki Rawa Kura: The School Property Strategy 2030, which was published in mid-2020. This sets out the desired future state for the school property portfolio, with ākonga at the centre of our thinking.
Education Network Plans#
The Education Network Plans were released in 2022. The plans cover the rest of the country outside of the highest-growth areas covered by the NEGP. These areas are a mixture of steady growth, stable, or declining population.
The catchments in the NEGP and those in the network plans have come together to create the National Education Network Plan (NENP) covering the 119 catchments across the country.
The updates below show what we have been doing, what has changed, and which projects have been announced.
Te Tira Hou#
Te Tira Hou was refreshed in 2024 and is the overview of the network of kura kaupapa Māori and Māori-medium kura, and rumaki units.
Network Plan for Specialist Settings#
The Network Plan for Specialist Settings 2026–2030 provides a national framework to strengthen and grow specialist settings across the country, to respond to growing demand. The plan identifies opportunities to increase and enhance access to specialist settings over the next 5 years.
This plan has been shaped by the 12 education regions responding to their own network drivers. It is largely focused on planning for additional capacity at our day specialist schools and their satellites. It identifies system level improvements to support the learning support network more broadly.
A separate sensory schools and regional health schools plan will be developed to fully consider the unique network planning requirements of these schools.
Demand Plan 2026#
The annual Demand Plan identifies trends, patterns and locations of growth and demand. It helps us identify where and when capacity in school networks will be needed across regions and the motu | country.
The Demand Plan outlines the wider growth context. It shows our commitment to working with our school property partners to target the highest demand in school networks, and to coordinating and planning for projected growth and demand.
