Reviewing and reporting use of STAR funding

Find out about your reporting obligations for STAR funding.

Level of complianceMain audienceOther

Required

  • Boards
  • Principals and Tumuaki
  • Administrators
  • Teachers and Kaiako

Schools must meet a set of requirements regarding the review and reporting of use of STAR funding.

Reporting

Reporting to the Ministry of Education

STAR funding is part of operational funding, which is the money a board of trustees receives from the Government to implement the goals of the school's charter, and to run the school.

Following the results of the 2015 Review of STAR and Gateway, schools are now required to identify STAR participants in their student management system. Student management systems have been updated to allow STAR participants to be identified.

The following links are to user guides for the new STAR identification function. Note that not all student management system vendors have provided user guides.

KAMAR

User guide for vendor KAMAR(external link)

Synergetic SMS

Description: to flag a student, administrators should select an option in the STAR Funded Course Date drop down box.

STAR funding box on Synergetic SMS [JPG, 70 KB]

MUSAC SMS

Description: The user needs to select the value Yes from the dropdown, the default is No.

STAR funding box on MUSAC SMS [JPG, 71 KB]

User guide for vendor MUSAC edge(external link)

eTAP SMS

Description: to flag a student, administrators should select an option in the most recent STAR funding date drop down box. Note that this screen appears in version 66 of Synergetic. Schools running an earlier version will receive a user form when their 2015 roll returns patch is installed.

STAR funding box on eTAP SMS [JPEG, 75 KB] 

Assembly SMS

Description: to flag a student, administrators should tick the Student has participated in a STAR funded course in the current year box.

STAR funding box on Assembly SMS [JPEG, 66 KB] 

Reporting to the board

Schools are expected to manage and monitor the use of STAR funding for audit purposes and for reporting to the board.

At least once a year the principal should report to the board. The report should focus on how the activity achieved the outcomes set in the school’s Strategic and Annual Plans.

The report to the board should:

  • address the key outcomes 
  • include appropriate information about students who participated in STAR funded courses: gender and ethnicity, achievement, alignment with Vocational Pathways and qualifications, and records of attendance
  • highlight successes of the STAR-funded courses 
  • comment on trends, risks or issues that are emerging 
  • include recommendations about future directions 
  • provide an overview of expenditure
  • list of key personnel and their roles.

Reporting to New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA)

The principal’s nominee is responsible for forwarding of student achievement information to the NZQA, regardless of whether courses are delivered internally or by an external provider with Consent to Assess.

Because of this, it's important the memorandum of understanding that the school has with external providers sets out a clear process for communicating results.

Partnerships with external providers using the STAR funding

When a student has completed a course, the Curriculum Leader or STAR Coordinator is required to forward the student name, their National Student Number, the provider’s number and the assessment standard number and version to the principal’s nominee.

The STAR Coordinator should check the entry before the records are uploaded to NZQA and at a later date check the student Record of Achievement.

Review of STAR

The purpose of a review is to examine how well STAR funding is being utilised to meet the objectives of STAR. The review process should be part of school-wide curriculum self-review.

Tools for curriculum review in a Vocational Pathways context are available from Youth Guarantee.

Curriculum Programme design self-review – Youth Guarantee website(external link)

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