Round 3 - Briefings and Advice

This section includes documents briefing or advising the Minister on matters relating to the application process, including the selection of the successful applicants.

All applicants to operate Partnership Schools opening in 2017 went through a comprehensive application process run by the Authorisation Board and the Ministry of Education. This process was run according to All-of-Government procurement rules and principles.

The application process had three parts:

  1. Evaluation – the Authorisation Board and the Ministry of Education assessed all 26 written applications against set criteria. In addition, the Authorisation Board and the Ministry conducted due diligence on each applicant, and the Ministry checked financial information.
  2. Interviews with short-listed applicants – the Authorisation Board invited 5 short-listed applicants to an interview to respond to questions relating to specific aspects of their proposals. Ministry officials took part in the interviews. The Authorisation Board carried out reference checks.
  3. Provision of advice to the Minister of Education – the Authorisation Board and the Ministry drew all of the information together to provide advice to the Minister of Education to consider when making her final decisions on which sponsors to progress to contract negotiations to open a Partnership School in 2015.

The Minister selected three applicants to progress to contract negotiations to open a Partnership School, and informed Cabinet of this intention. One applicant withdrew towards the end of this process.

Ministry of Education Network Analysis

  • There is no requirement in the legislation that the Minister consults with State Schools when establishing a Partnership School, nor is it considered appropriate as these schools are selected through a competitive procurement process.
  • As with Rounds 1 and 2, before the Partnership Schools were approved, the Ministry analysed how the new Partnership Schools would fit into the existing network of state, state-integrated and private schools in the area. This was done to understand the possible impact to the surrounding state schools if a Partnership School were to be approved as recommended
  • Because Partnership Schools are schools-of-choice for parents, they are expected to draw students from a much wider catchment than is usually the case. In the Ministry’s analysis for a new Partnership School we continue to look at the immediate area because a broad network analysis is neither practical nor feasible.

Documents are available in PDF format only. If you have any issues accessing the documents please email info@education.govt.nz.

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