All state schools | kura are required to implement a phone rule that has student phones ‘away for the day’ as soon as possible in Term 1 2024 and no later than the start of Term 2 2024.

The Government has introduced regulations to put this requirement in place. These can be found at:

Education (School Boards) Amendment Regulations 2023 – Parliamentary Counsel Office

Many schools | kura have existing phone rules in place and will just need to update them to reflect the new regulations. 

A guide to implementing phone rules in your school and a frequently asked questions sheet are on our website. This FAQ sheet includes: 

• understanding what must be in your schools’ rules 
• updating or developing new rules
• implementing your new or revised rules. 

Phones away for the day – Ministry of Education

During Term 1, we will be providing editable resources that you may choose to use in supporting students | ākonga and whānau to understand the rules. These will be published on our website later this month and available in multiple languages. 

Key dates:

• Term 1 2024 – schools | kura revise or develop and consult with communities on how the rules will work and implement rules.
• 29 April 2024 – rules must be in place by this date (first day of Term 2).
• Term 2 2024 – ERO will begin monitoring compliance.

From Term 1 2024 schools | kura with students | ākonga in Years 0 to 8 will spend an average of at least an hour a day teaching reading, writing and maths, or pānui, tuhituhi and pāngarau. 

There are example timetables on Tāhūrangi to show how you could include an average of 60 minutes teaching and learning for reading, writing and maths. We have updated these resources this week to show how you might integrate an hour each of reading, writing and maths (or pānui, tuhituhi and pāngarau) across learning areas while identifying the concepts that you will teach explicitly.

Our intent is not for you to use these exemplars as presented, but that they are used to stimulate discussion in your school about how reading, writing and maths will be incorporated in your curriculum to meet the needs and aspirations of your students and communities.

Educators using Te Marautanga o Aotearoa will find these resources at:

Ko te pānui, te tuhituhi me te mahi pāngarau – Kotahi hāora i te rā mā ngā ākonga Tau 0–8 – Kauwhata Reo

Educators using The New Zealand Curriculum will find these resources at:

One hour a day reading, writing and maths for Years 0–8 – Te Poutāhū 

A whānau flier will be available in the next issue of the Bulletin. 

Regional staff are available to support you if help is needed implementing this policy. Please contact your local office if required. 

Local Ministry offices – Ministry of Education

We are liaising with specialist schools and some Kaupapa Māori kura about how they implement this policy by their deadline (Term 1 2025 and Term 3 2024 respectively). 

The Minister has established a Ministerial Advisory Group to provide advice on the refreshed English and mathematics learning areas, the common practice model and phase-by-phase guidance. 

Initial findings from this independent group of experts are expected in the coming months and will inform future decisions. The target is to deliver the refresh of the New Zealand Curriculum to the same timeframe.

You will have an opportunity to review changes before they are finalised in 2024 and you are still required to use the refreshed mathematics and statistics and English learning areas from the start of 2025. 

More information will be available on our website. 

Ministerial Advisory Group – Ministry of Education

New attendance resources, including for parents, are available to use from Term 1. 

Student attendance: Guide for schools and kura – Ministry of Education

Student attendance: Guide for parents and caregivers – Ministry of Education

Parents and caregivers are required to have their children attend school, and to develop habits of regular attendance. Schools and kura support that effort with a strong attendance ethic along with an engaging curriculum and a safe environment. The resources include guidance for you to review attendance processes, an e-learning module to build staff knowledge, content for newsletters and presentations to provide clear and consistent messaging to parents. 

Last December, the Minister requested additional resources and supports to help you and kaiako implement the new NCEA level 1. We were fortunate to have had the help of a wide range of subject associations and subject experts as these new tools were created.

The resources are now complete, and they will continue to be enhanced as needed with feedback from you. We also intend to expand them to cover NCEA levels 2 and 3 in due course.

To read about the new resources, and find them, visit:

New NCEA Level 1 supports available – NCEA Education

NCEA homepage – NCEA Education

The suite of supports include:

• subject learning outcomes (SLO) documents to help identify the knowledge and skills that should be taught for each level 1 achievement standard
• Ngā Putanga Ako for each wāhanga ako, which lays out the mātauranga and skills being assessed in ngā Kaupae 1 Paerewa Paetae 
• a teacher guide that kaiako can use to walk through all of the resources available to support their implementation of NCEA level 1
• registration details about subject-specific and wāhanga ako workshops for kaiako, which will be offered through Term 1. These will be largely online, after school | kura, led by NCEA implementation facilitators with support from subject associations to support kaiako with the subject changes. 

We will also be making available:

• links to NCEA level 1 subject associations to help kaiako access resources developed by pilot teachers, to be added throughout February 
• exemplars for NCEA level 1 achievement standards and Paerewa Paetae, developed by NZQA. 

If you have any questions, email NCEA.review@education.govt.nz.