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What boards must do#
The Education and Training Act 2020 and the Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2023 set out the school planning and reporting framework.
Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2023 – New Zealand Legislation
Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi requires your board to:
- consult your community and develop a 3-year strategic plan outlining how the board will meet its paramount and supporting objectives, as outlined in Section 127 of the Education and Training Act 2020
- create an annual implementation plan that sets annual targets and actions for working towards strategic goals
- create an annual report that details the school’s progress and finances.
Section 127 of the Education and Training Act 2020 – New Zealand Legislation
Due to recent changes to the Education and Training Act 2020 and Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2023, your board is no longer required to:
- include information describing how your annual targets and intended actions will support your board to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi in your annual implementation plans
- include a report on how your board has given effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi in your annual report.
In addition, a board’s previous objective to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi has been replaced with the following supporting objective.
The board must ensure it:
- seeks to achieve equitable outcomes for Māori students, and
- takes all reasonable steps to provide for students to be taught, and to learn, in te reo Māori on request of their parents or immediate caregivers, and
- takes reasonable steps to ensure that the policies and practices for the school reflect New Zealand’s cultural diversity.
Timeline for 2026#
Your board needs to complete the following in 2026:
- 31 March – Publish your annual implementation plan for the current school year. Send your annual financial statements to your auditor.
- 31 May – Submit your annual report to the Ministry. Publish your annual report online as soon as practicable following this.
Priorities for 2026#
You do not need to develop a new strategic plan for 2026, but your board can amend your current strategic plan if you wish.
If you don’t have a current strategic goal for meeting the Government priorities for Education, it is strongly recommended you add targets for these priorities in your annual implementation plan for 2026. This could look like setting targets:
- Relating to actions you are taking to implement/prepare to implement curricula, assessment and aromatawai changes.
- Relating to actions you are taking to lift attendance and reduce absence.
Submitting your documents to us#
Submit your planning and reporting documents to us using the School Planning and Reporting Application. Guidance is available within the application.
School Planning and Reporting Application Login – Ministry of Education
The School Planning and Reporting Application uses your Education Sector Logon (ESL). You will need to request access to the School Planning and Reporting Application by contacting your school’s ESL Delegated Authoriser.
Delegated Authorisers will need to set up the School Planning and Reporting role for users as shown below.
Detailed guidance for Delegated Authorisers on how to set up new roles for users is available online.
ESL: Support for Online Delegated Authorisers - Ministry of Education
Technical Support for ESL and the School Planning and Reporting Application is available from the Education Service Desk.
Freephone (NZ only): 0800 422 599
Publishing your documents online#
You must publish all planning and reporting documents on a website so parents, whānau and communities can access them.
If your school or kura does not have its own website, we can host your documents on our Education Counts website. Send a board-approved request to us.
Email: [email protected]
It is the school board’s responsibility to ensure your planning and reporting documents do not contain any information that may breach an individual’s privacy before you publish them.
Resources for implementing the framework#
Our toolkit supports your board and principal to implement Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together.
The toolkit sets out the requirements of your planning and reporting documents.
The toolkit is currently being updated to reflect recent changes to the Education and Training Act 2020. The updated toolkit will be available shortly.
This toolkit includes worksheets that schools may use during the planning process.
Information for Māori-medium settings#
We have designed an information kit for boards, tumuaki | principals and staff in Māori-medium settings and for specified kura boards. It has information about the new requirements, a suggested process and example templates.
The information kit is different from the English-medium toolkit. It includes:
- a definition of a specified kura board and the different requirements for their plans
- example templates for how a tumuaki could report to their board.
The information kit is currently being updated to reflect recent changes to the Education and Training Act 2020. The updated information kit will be available shortly.
Templates#
You can use these optional templates to create your strategic plan, annual implementation plan and annual report. You can adapt them to suit your school, kura and community.
Community planning pack#
This pack provides information about the planning and reporting process for your community. It explains the role the community has in the process.
Translations of the community planning packs are currently being updated to reflect recent changes to the Education and Training Act 2020. The updated packs will be available shortly.
Contact us#
Your regional office can help with developing your planning and reporting documents.
Assistance is also available from Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa (formerly New Zealand School Trustees Association):
Advice and support – Te Whakarōputanga
Freephone (NZ only): 0800 782 435
