School planning and reporting: Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together for Ākonga Success

Guidance and requirements for consulting with your community, developing and publishing your planning and reporting documents as part of your wider planning and reporting process.

Level of compliance	Main audience	Other
Required	School boards Principals and tumuaki	Parents and whānau

Level of compliance

Main audience

Other

Required

School boards
Principals and tumuaki

Parents and whānau

The new framework for school planning and reporting, called Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together for Ākonga Success: Our School, Our Community is now in place.

The requirements of Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together are set out in the Education and Training Act 2020 and the Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2023.

Overview

Effective planning and reporting underpins all the other work that schools and kura do.

Schools and kura need to intentionally plan, and evaluate their performance to:

give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and support Māori-Crown relationships
meet legislated board primary objectives and show how the school or kura has had particular regard for the National Education and Learning Priorities (NELP)
ensure the needs of all ākonga are met
ensure the voices of all ākonga and whānau are heard
implement teaching and learning programmes that give effect to the New Zealand Curriculum or Te Marautanga o Aotearoa to improve outcomes for all ākonga.

The new framework: Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together

Under the Education and Training Act 2020, a new planning and reporting framework came into effect on 1 January 2023. Regulations that set out the details of the new framework have now been made.

Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2023 – NZ Legislation(external link)

School planning and reporting legislation comparison [PDF, 626 KB]

Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together is designed to help:

focus schools and kura on continuously improving their planning and reporting practices to deliver equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners
support learners, whānau and communities to be involved in the planning process for their school or kura
give schools and kura flexibility to reflect their local contexts in their planning and reporting
support whānau and communities to hold their schools or kura accountable for learner outcomes.

Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together requires your board to develop:

a 3-year strategic plan [1] developed in consultation with their school community, that sets out how the board will meet their primary objectives (set out in the Education and Training Act 2020)
an annual implementation plan that sets annual targets and actions for working towards their strategic goals
an annual report that reports on the school’s progress and finances.

[1] Your board’s first strategic plan will be for a timeframe of 2 years (1 January 2024-31 December 2025) to align the strategic planning cycle with board triennial elections.

Objectives of boards in governing schools – NZ Legislation(external link)

How school planning and reporting links to the delivery of the national curriculum

Developing and delivering a high-quality local curriculum and marau ā-kura is at the heart of planning for your school or kura.

In your strategic plan, your board needs to plan for the successful implementation of the refreshed and redesigned national curriculum. More information about the new curricula is available from the curriculum and assessment changes page.

Curriculum and assessment changes

A diagram showing legislative responsibilities for curriculum and a statement to help boards manage the transition period until the new curricula is in place is available from:

Te Marautanga o Aotearoa – Kauwhata Reo(external link)

Te Marautanga o Aotearoa – TKI(external link)

New Zealand Curriculum – TKI(external link)

Support materials for schools

Toolkit

We have designed a toolkit to support your board and principal to implement Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together.

The toolkit sets out the detailed requirements of your planning and reporting documents.

Further support material including advice on giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi will be available soon.

Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together toolkit [PDF, 2.4 MB]

This toolkit includes several worksheets that schools might find useful during their planning process.

Full versions of these worksheets are available below:

Information kit

We have designed an information kit on kura planning and reporting to support boards, tumuaki and staff in Māori-medium settings and for specified kura boards.

The information kit contains information about the new requirements, a suggested planning and reporting process, and example templates.

The information kit for Māori-medium and specified kura boards is different from the English-medium toolkit.

The main differences are:

inclusion of the definition of a specified kura boards and the different requirements for their plans
addition of example templates for how a principal could report to their board.

Implementation pack

The implementation pack includes the key changes to the planning and reporting framework and a high-level timeline for proposed key dates.

It also includes self-reflection statements to help you monitor your progress as you lead your school through the planning and reporting changes.

Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together implementation pack [PDF, 665 KB]

Templates

We have also developed templates for the strategic plan, annual implementation plan and annual report. The use of these templates is optional, and they can be amended to suit the needs of your school or kura and your community.

Community planning pack

A pack that you may choose to provide to your community to help them understand how they can be involved in your school’s planning and reporting processes is also available.

Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together community pack (New Zealand Sign Language)

School annual reports and publishing your documents

See more information about your school annual report:

School annual reports

See more information about publishing your documents online:

Publishing your documents online

Due dates for 2024

Your board needs to complete the following in 2024:

Due date	Action
By 1 March	Publish and submit your strategic plan (in effect from 1 January 2024–31 December 2025).
By 31 March	Publish your annual implementation plan for the current school year. Send your annual financial statements to your auditor.
By 31 May	Submit your annual report. Please also publish your annual report online as soon as practicable following this.

Due date

Action

By 1 March

Publish and submit your strategic plan (in effect from 1 January 2024–31 December 2025).

By 31 March

Publish your annual implementation plan for the current school year.

Send your annual financial statements to your auditor.

By 31 May

Submit your annual report. Please also publish your annual report online as soon as practicable following this.

Please use the Secure Data Portal to submit your documents to the Ministry. All documents must be 22MB or less to be successfully uploaded to the Secure Data Portal.

Secure Data Portal(external link)

Last reviewed: 22 July 2024 Has this been useful? Give us your feedback