Guidelines for schools providing supplementary education

These guidelines are for use in all registered schools (state, state-integrated and private schools).
They are designed to help schools make a decision about supporting a student enrolled at one registered school to receive supplementary education at another registered school.

Part 1: Enrolment obligations under the Education and Training Act 2020 (the Act)

The Act places a number of obligations on registered schools regarding its students.

Enrolment records – section 237, Education and Training Act 2020

The principal of a registered school must make sure that an enrolment record is kept for each student who is enrolled at the school. All students attending the school must be recorded in ENROL, as provided in section 237.  

A student cannot be enrolled in two (or more) schools at once. Schools offering supplementary education to a student may not record that student in ENROL. These students must be recorded in ENROL by their enrolling school.

For the purposes of these guidelines, a student’s “enrolling school” is the school that records the student in ENROL.

Attendance requirements – section 36, Education and Training Act 2020

A student of compulsory schooling age is required to attend a registered school whenever it is open. State school Boards must take all reasonable steps to make sure that the school’s students attend the school when it is open.

Students receiving supplementary education outside of their enrolling school under section 53 of the Act must be treated as attending their enrolling school while undertaking supplementary education.

Responsibility for the education and safety of students – Education and Training Act 2020

Section 127 of the Act sets out a State school board’s responsibility for the education, and physical and emotional safety of its students. For private schools, these responsibilities are set out in Schedule 7 of the Act.

While every school must make sure the safety of every student at the school, the enrolling school has the overall responsibility for the education, and physical and emotional safety of its students. 

Part 2: Supplementary education framework

Legislative requirements

While a student cannot be enrolled in two (or more) schools at once, a student enrolled at one registered school may be authorised to undertake supplementary education offered at another registered school. Any such arrangements must adhere to the following legislative provisions:

  • Regulation 6 of the Education (School Boards) Regulations 2020.
  • Section 53 of the Education and Training Act 2020 (the Act).

Regulation 6 of the School Boards Regulations enables students enrolled at a State school to receive tuition at or from another State school, by agreement between the boards concerned.

Section 53 of the Act allows a board to authorise a student to undertake courses of education outside of school premises and this may apply to a tuition agreement between a State school and a private school. Any such arrangements under section 53 must be authorised by the enrolling school’s board and the student must be treated as attending the enrolling school while undertaking the course(s) concerned.

Note that supplementary education could take place at any time, and is not restricted to the confines of a regular school day.

New Zealand Qualification Authority (NZQA) requirements

National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) assessment can only be provided by a school that has been granted Consent to Assess by NZQA. An agreement may be put in place between schools that hold Consent to Assess to enable a student to undertake NCEA outside of their enrolling school.

A consent holding school may engage a subcontractor to assess students against particular standards. NZQA must approve this arrangement and the consent holder remains responsible for all of the subcontractor’s actions for the students in question.

Consent to assess rules – NZQA website(external link) 

Part 3: Good practice for providing supplementary education

Establish an agreement

Provision of supplementary education must align with the legislative requirements set out in Part 1 and Part 2. A student’s enrolling school may not be aware that another school has been engaged to provide supplementary education. Therefore, it is up to the school that is offering supplementary education to:

  • check whether a student is already enrolled at a registered school
  • communicate with a student’s enrolling school.

An agreement must be established between the enrolling school and the supplementary education provider. This could take the form of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between schools that covers key aspects such as the purpose of the supplementary education arrangement, health and safety requirements and student welfare responsibilities. As set out in the Act, the enrolling school must maintain responsibility for the overall education, and physical and emotional safety of its students.

As part of this process, schools should take into account the learning needs and aspirations of students and their family and whānau.

Ensuring the wellbeing of students

Supplementary education arrangements can be a good way to support and complement student learning. However, additional workload can put undue pressure and stress on students and have a detrimental impact on their learning and wellbeing.  

Therefore, it’s important that the schools involved are communicating with each other and putting the student’s wellbeing and learning needs first. 

Examples of supplementary education arrangements

  • A student taking subjects not offered by their enrolling school. These could be taken as part of a student’s normal school timetable so as to not increase workload.
  • Supplementing a student’s subject learning i.e., a student could take extra maths classes to support their learning or if they excel in a certain subject, they could take a higher-level class (e.g. Year 12 student taking Year 13 Biology).
  • Once a week whole-class arrangement – schools could agree to enable groups of students to receive supplementary education (e.g. business or trades projects, computer science programmes).

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